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BACKGROUND: Research on paranoia in adults suggests a spectrum of severity, but this dimensional approach has yet to be applied to children or to groups from different countries. AIMS: To investigate the structure, prevalence and correlates of mistrust in children living in the U.K. and Hong Kong. METHOD: Children aged 8-14 years from the U.K. (n = 1086) and Hong Kong (n = 1412) completed a newly developed mistrust questionnaire as well as standard questionnaire measures of anxiety, self-esteem, aggression and callous-unemotional traits. RESULTS: Confirmatory factor analysis of the U.K. data supported a three-factor mode--mistrust at home, mistrust at school and eneral mistrust - with a clear positive skew in the data: just 3.4%, 8.5% and 4.1% of the children endorsed at least half of the mistrust items for home, school and general subscales respectively. These findings were replicated in Hong Kong. Moreover, compared with their peers, 'mistrustful' children (in both countries) reported elevated rates of anxiety, low self-esteem, aggression and callous-unemotional traits. CONCLUSIONS: Mistrust may exist as a quantitative trait in children, which, as in adults, is associated with elevated risks of internalising and externalising problems.

Original publication

DOI

10.1192/bjp.bp.113.135467

Type

Journal article

Journal

Br J Psychiatry

Publication Date

09/2014

Volume

205

Pages

221 - 229

Keywords

Adolescent, Aggression, Anxiety, Child, Emotions, Empathy, Female, Hong Kong, Humans, Male, Paranoid Disorders, Peer Group, Prevalence, Self Concept, Surveys and Questionnaires, Trust, United Kingdom