The significance of childhood neurosis for adult mental health: a follow-up study

The author compared the mental health of 42 young adults who had suffered from a neurosis in childhood with that of 20 control subjects. Various aspects of functioning were clinically assessed using the Current and Past Psychopathology Scales and the Health-Sickness Rating Scale. More than 75% of the former patients were at least mildly ill at follow-up, compared with only 15% of the control group. Intergroup differences in diagnoses and symptoms are described. The findings establish the fact that neurotic children require much more effective treatment than they have traditionally received in order to attain a good prognosis for adult mental health.

School phobia and other childhood neuroses: a systematic study of the children and their families

The authors developed reliable clinical rating scales to compare 35 children with school phobia and their families with a matched sample of children with other neuroses and their families. Twice as many school phobic children as children with other neuroses showed excessive separation anxiety, dependency, and depression. Although a mutually hostile-dependent interaction was found in most of the families of children with school phobia, the development of school phobia appeared to be dependent on defects in character development in the children as well. The authors discuss the etiological significance of the almost universal parental pathology and family malfunction for both groups of children.