Patricia Renno

An Emotional Health Curriculum (EHC) was developed to promote positive mental health in primarily Hispanic elementary school-aged children. In order to further expand the EHC, the mothers' experiences with the curriculum were examined. Eighteen mothers participated in two focus groups. Mothers reported that they valued this curriculum as a preventive program. Importantly, all mothers wished to extend their involvement to not only assisting their child in completing the curriculum homework but also attending a proposed parenting program. This study provides preliminary evidence that mothers embraced the EHC as an accessible community mental health service for their children and sought greater involvement.

Despite reports of high anxiety in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), there is controversy regarding differential diagnosis of ASD symptoms and anxiety symptoms. This study examined 88 children, aged 7–11 years, with ASD referred for concerns about anxiety. A multitrait-(social anxiety, separation anxiety, overall anxiety severity, and overall ASD severity), multimethod-(diagnostic interviews, parent-, and child-based measures) analysis was conducted. Results from structural equation modeling suggest statistical discrimination between anxiety and ASD severity and convergence among differing reports of two of the anxiety subdomains (separation anxiety and overall anxiety). These findings suggest that anxiety symptoms experienced by children with ASD are separate from ASD symptom severity and may instead reflect anxiety syndromes (e.g., separation anxiety) similar to those that occur in typically developing children.