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Separation Anxiety Disorder

  • Chapter
International Handbook of Phobic and Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adolescents

Part of the book series: Issues in Clinical Child Psychology ((ICCP))

Abstract

The creation of subcategories of anxiety disorders of childhood or adolescence in the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA’s) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd edition (DSM-III) (APA, 1980) and 3rd edition, revised (DSM-III-R) (APA, 1987), has provided a heuristic framework and stimulus for research on anxiety disorders of childhood. This approach to the subcategorization of psychopathological disorders in childhood has not been free of criticism, particularly from Great Britain, where childhood psychiatric disorders are divided into two broad categories: conduct disorders and emotional disorders (which include anxiety states) (Hersov, 1985a). The proponents of this approach have argued that there is insufficient evidence to justify a further subcategorization of emotional disorders and the further specification of anxiety disorders (Hersov, 1985a; Rutter & Shaffer, 1980). However, the new International Classification of Disorders, 10th edition (ICD-10) [World Health Organization (WHO), 1992, pp. 273–276], specifies three types of anxiety disorders within the group of emotional disorders with a set specific to childhood, namely, separation anxiety, phobic anxiety, and social anxiety. It qualifies this categorization, though, with the statement that “emotional disorders of childhood are less clearly demarcated into supposedly specific entities.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Monash Medical Center, Centre for Developmental Psychiatry, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

    Bruce Tonge

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, 24061-0436, USA

    Thomas H. Ollendick

  2. Department of Education, Monash University, Clayton, 3168, Victoria, Australia

    Neville J. King

  3. Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, London, SE5 8AF, UK

    William Yule

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Tonge, B. (1994). Separation Anxiety Disorder. In: Ollendick, T.H., King, N.J., Yule, W. (eds) International Handbook of Phobic and Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adolescents. Issues in Clinical Child Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1498-9_8

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