独生子女与非独生子女学龄前儿童焦虑症状差异的分解与比较分析：一项横断面研究

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry

Sec. Anxiety and Stress Disorders

Abstract

Background: Anxiety symptoms in preschool children are an important public health concern. Family structure may influence children’s emotional development through differences in family resources, parent–child interactions, and developmental environments. This study compared anxiety symptoms between only and non-only children and examined factors contributing to between-group differences. Methods: This cross-sectional study used data from the 2022 Longhua Child Cohort Study in Shenzhen, China. A total of 67,779 preschool children aged 3–6 years (46,565 only children and 21,214 non-only children) were included. Anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Chinese version of the Spence Preschool Anxiety Scale (SPAS; cutoff ≥48). Sociodemographic characteristics, ADHD symptoms, and emotional and behavioral problems were collected. Chi-square tests and multivariate logistic regression were used to identify associated factors, and the Fairlie decomposition model quantified the contributions of observed factors to between-group differences. Results: The overall detection rate of anxiety symptoms was 3.48%, with a slightly higher rate among only children than non-only children (3.6% vs. 3.3%, P=0.027). Higher maternal education (OR=0.710–0.751) and household income (OR=0.426–0.623) were associated with lower odds of anxiety symptoms, whereas female sex (OR=1.224–1.276), positive ADHD symptoms (OR≈2.53), and abnormal SDQ total difficulties scores (OR≈18.28) were associated with higher odds. Fairlie decomposition showed that 39.8% of the between-group difference was explained by observed factors. Emotional and behavioral problems contributed most (41.43%), followed by ADHD symptoms (17.93%) and gender (3.42%), while maternal education (-19.67%) and household income (-5.91%) made negative contributions. The remaining 60.2% was attributable to unobserved factors. Conclusion: Only children had a statistically higher detection rate of anxiety symptoms than non-only children, although the absolute difference was small. Emotional and behavioral problems, ADHD symptoms, and socioeconomic factors contributed substantially to the disparity. Targeted mental health monitoring, differentiated family guidance, and collaborative support across families, kindergartens, and communities may help address anxiety risks among preschool children.

Keywords

Anxiety symptoms, Cross-sectional study, Fairlie Decomposition Model, Only Child, Preschool children

Received

09 May 2026

Accepted

31 August 2026

Copyright

© 2026 Xie, Wang, Tuersun, Yin, Zhou, Liang, Peng, Li and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Junfang Huang

Disclaimer

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

• Outline
• Share
• Metrics
• More