CUHK electronic theses & dissertations collection

Background and objectives. Spurred by the longstanding interest in the intimate relationship between anxiety and depression, different conceptual models of negative affectivity have been proposed to account for their common and unique features. The two-factor model (Tellegen, 1985; Watson, Clark & Tellegen, 1988) proposes that Negative Affect (NA) represents a nonspecific factor common to both depression and anxiety, whereas low Positive Affect (PA) is a specific factor to depressed mood. The tripartite model (Clark & Watson, 1991b) divides symptoms into three groups: Negative Affect (general distress) symptoms that are largely non-specific; low Positive Affect (anhedonia) symptoms that are specific to depression; and Physiological Hyperarousal (PH) symptoms that are unique to anxiety. The structural model of negative affectivity (Zinbarg et al., 1994; Zinbarg & Barlow, 1996; Brown et al., 1998) postulates NA and PA as higher order factors under which PH, DSM-IV anxiety and depression are subsumed as lower order factors in a hierarchical arrangement. For the cognitive approach, Beck's cognitive content-specificity hypothesis (Beck, 1976) emphasizes the important role of specific cognitions in differentiating anxiety and depression. The objectives of the present study were: (1) To examine the relationship between anxiety and depression in an adolescent sample of Hong Kong; (2) To examine the phenotypic structure of anxiety and depression in the Hong Kong adolescent sample; and (3) To assess the validity and applicability of the western negative affectivity models and cognitive model for differentiating anxiety and depression in the Hong Kong adolescent sample.Conclusions. Overall, the present study provides good support for the affective models of negative affectivity and the cognitive model developed in the west which constitutes a good basis for elucidating the relationship between anxiety and depression in the Chinese adolescents of Hong Kong. Although cross-cultural differences in anxiety and depressive symptoms are not directly addressed in this study, the results tend to suggest that Chinese adolescents do not uniformly over or under-report depressive or anxiety symptoms as compare to their Western reference groups. The results generally support the view that there is a large degree of universality or commonality of emotional constructs and affect structures between adolescents in the East and West. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)Results. Good construct and concurrent validity were established for all the scales applied. Both the two-factor model and the tripartite model showed good fit to our data which also supported the various predictions by the models. Moreover, the results provided good evidence for the hierarchical model in which NA and PA were interpreted as higher orders, whereas Physiological Hyperarousal (PH), DSM-IV anxiety disorders, and depression were specific lower order factors. Consistent with the content-specificity hypothesis, anxious and depressive cognitions were found to specifically predict anxiety and depressive symptoms respectively.Kwok, Wai Yee Alice."April 2007."Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-01, Section: B, page: 0221.Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-179).Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.Abstracts in English and Chinese.School code: 1307