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Jaros K. Voice Handicap and Public Speaking Anxiety in Self-Assessment among Children with and without Vocal Fold Nodules. J Voice 2024:S0892-1997(24)00153-X. [PMID: 38937189 DOI: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2024.05.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2024] [Revised: 05/02/2024] [Accepted: 05/03/2024] [Indexed: 06/29/2024]
Abstract
PURPOSE Vocal fold (VF) nodules are very common laryngeal lesion that affects people, including children as well. However, it has a negative impact on the communication and voice quality which is why it is important to study and measure it. Unfortunately, there may be factors which disturb examining process especially during questionnaire self-assessment. This study aimed to investigate whether public speaking anxiety (stage fright) correlates with scores on the Children's Voice Handicap Index-10 (CVHI-10) and to determine if children with VF nodules assess their voice similarly to those without such lesions. METHOD Thirty-seven respondents at age 8-12 participated in the study. It was conducted the surveys: Children Voice Handicap Index-10 (CVHI-10), Stage Fright Scale - Children & Youth (SFS-CY), and Neuroticism subscale of the Big Five Questionnaire - Children (BFQ-C-Neu) and endoscopy laryngeal examination. The text describes the reliability analysis, means comparison, and correlation analysis. RESULTS The measures used achieved a high level of reliability. There were no statistically significant differences in voice self-assessment scores between groups with and without VF nodules. Significant relationships were found between the CVHI-10 scores and all factors of the SFS-CY. CONCLUSIONS The results reveal that children with VF nodules assess their voice similarly to those without laryngeal lesions. Correlation analysis shows significant relationships between voice handicap in self-assessment and stage fright factors. This may explain the lack of differences in CVHI-10 scores among groups; however, further research is needed to clarify this phenomenon.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kamil Jaros
- Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Educational Linguistics, The Maria Grzegorzewska University, Warsaw, Poland.
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Chen Y, Deng X. How Socially Avoidant Emerging Adults Process Social Feedback during Human-to-Human Interaction after Social Rejection: An Event-Related Potential Study. Behav Sci (Basel) 2024; 14:457. [PMID: 38920789 PMCID: PMC11200703 DOI: 10.3390/bs14060457] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2024] [Revised: 05/26/2024] [Accepted: 05/27/2024] [Indexed: 06/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Social avoidance refers to active non-participation in social activities, which is detrimental to healthy interpersonal interaction for emerging adults. Social rejection is a kind of negative social evaluation from others making people feel social pain. However, how socially avoidant emerging adults process social feedback information after experiencing social rejection has received less attention. The current study aimed to explore the differences in social interaction feedback processing after social rejection between a socially avoidant group (n = 16) and a comparison group (n = 16) in a human-to-human interaction context. Computer game tasks with two types of interaction (cooperation and competition) were used to record the event-related potentials when receiving social interaction feedback in two conditions (social rejection and control condition). The results showed that (1) the socially avoidant group had lower reward positivity amplitudes than the comparison group when receiving social feedback; (2) the socially avoidant group presented larger P300 amplitudes in the social rejection condition than in the control condition, but the comparison group did not; and (3) social rejection evoked more negative N1 amplitudes in the socially avoidant and comparison groups. The findings suggest that socially avoidant emerging adults may have flaws in reward sensitivity during interpersonal interaction, and they might also exert more attentional and emotional resources to social feedback after social rejection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yangdi Chen
- School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
| | - Xinmei Deng
- School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
- The Shenzhen Humanities & Social Sciences Key Research Bases of the Center for Mental Health, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
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Lidle LR, Schmitz J. Assessing Visual Avoidance of Faces During Real-Life Social Stress in Children with Social Anxiety Disorder: A Mobile Eye-Tracking Study. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 2024; 55:24-35. [PMID: 35708796 PMCID: PMC10796484 DOI: 10.1007/s10578-022-01383-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/23/2022] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
This study measured visual attention (fixation count, dwell time) during two real-life social stress tasks using mobile eye-tracking glasses in children (9-13 years) diagnosed with social anxiety disorder (SAD; n = 25) and a healthy control group (HC; n = 30). The influence of state anxiety on attention allocation and negative self-evaluation biases regarding gaze behavior were also examined. Compared to the HC group, children with SAD showed visual avoidance (i.e., fewer fixations) of the faces of interaction partners during the second social stress task. While visual avoidance in HC children decreased with declining state anxiety from the first to the second social stress task, no such effect was found in children with SAD. A negative self-evaluation bias regarding gaze behavior in children with SAD was not found. In sum, measuring visual attention during real-life social situations may help enhance our understanding of social attention in childhood SAD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leonie Rabea Lidle
- Department for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leipzig University, Neumarkt 9-19, 04109, Leipzig, Germany.
- Leipzig Research Centre for Early Child Development, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Julian Schmitz
- Department for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leipzig University, Neumarkt 9-19, 04109, Leipzig, Germany
- Leipzig Research Centre for Early Child Development, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
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Kırca B, Saruhan V, Aydoğdu BN, Avcu A. Mediation effect of cognitive flexibility between fear of negative evaluation and interaction anxiety. CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY 2023. [DOI: 10.1007/s12144-023-04495-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/12/2023]
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O'Brien K, Sukovieff A, Johnson EA. Evidence of Delayed, Recursive Benefits of Self-Affirmation on Anxiety in Socially Anxious University Students. JOURNAL OF SOCIAL AND CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1521/jscp.2021.40.6.534] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Introduction: Persons with social anxiety disorder (SAD) often experience social interactions as threatening and commonly avoid them or perform poorly in them (Asher et al., 2017). Self-affirmation is an intervention shown to help individuals engage effectively in situations they perceive as threatening (Sherman & Hartson, 2011). We hypothesized that self-affirmation would allow socially anxious individuals to participate in more social activities, do so more effectively, and with less stress and anxiety. Methods: Following completion of baseline measures, 75 socially anxious university students were randomly assigned to complete a self-affirming or control writing task. They subsequently completed the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups (TSST-G), and received SAD psychoeducation designed to promote social engagement over the coming month, after which they were reassessed on baseline measures of social anxiety. Results Self-affirmation demonstrated no benefit at the time of engagement in the TSST-G. However, at follow-up, self-affirmed students reported significantly less discomfort, anxiety, and distress related to a variety of social behaviors as well as more engagement in those behaviors, relative to baseline, compared with non-affirmed students. Moreover, significantly more affirmed than non-affirmed participants reported clinically significant reductions in symptoms of SAD at follow-up. Discussion These results help to broaden our conceptualization of self-affirmation and provide support for its potential utility in treatment for those with SAD.
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Klein AM, Liber JM, van Lang NDJ, Reichart C, Nauta M, van Widenfelt BM, Utens EMWJ. The Role of Social Skills in Predicting Treatment-Recovery in Children with a Social Anxiety Disorder. Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol 2021; 49:1461-1472. [PMID: 34165687 PMCID: PMC8455491 DOI: 10.1007/s10802-021-00824-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/28/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The current study investigated the role of social skills and its interaction with social anxiety as predictors of treatment outcome in children with an anxiety disorder either with or without a social anxiety disorder (SoAD). In total, 133 children (aged 8 to 13) with an anxiety disorder received a 10-session cognitive behavioral treatment (FRIENDS program). Pre- to post treatment Reliable Change (RC) and Treatment-Recovery (TR) were assessed from a multi-informant perspective, by including diagnostic information (ADIS C/P), child-reported anxiety symptoms (MASC) and parent-reported internalizing symptoms (CBCL-Int). Social skills were assessed with the parent-rated Social Skills Rating System (assertion, self-control, responsibility). Results showed that 1) parents of children with a SoAD reported significantly less favorable use of assertive and responsible social behavior in their children pre-treatment than parents of children without SoAD, 2) children with higher social skills had a better treatment recovery, and 3) children with anxiety and higher responsible behavior pre-treatment and without a SoAD had a better treatment recovery, but this effect did not show for children with SoAD. In conclusion, better use of social behavior increased the likelihood of treatment recovery but not of reliable change. Further studies on the role of social skills in the treatment of childhood (social) anxiety are needed to investigate the mechanisms by which social skills impact treatment outcome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anke M Klein
- Developmental and Educational Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands. .,Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany.
| | - Juliette M Liber
- Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
| | | | - Catrien Reichart
- Curium, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Maaike Nauta
- Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | | | - Elisabeth M W J Utens
- Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.,Academic Center for Child Psychiatry the Bascule/AMC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.,Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
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Poole KL, Hassan R, Schmidt LA. Temperamental Shyness, Frontal EEG Theta/Beta Ratio, and Social Anxiety in Children. Child Dev 2021; 92:2006-2019. [PMID: 33885145 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13564] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
The authors examined how children's frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) theta/beta ratio-an index of neurocognitive control-changed from baseline to a social stressor, and whether these EEG changes moderated the relation between temperament and anxiety. Children (N = 152; Mage = 7.82 years, 52% male, 81% White) had their EEG recorded during a baseline and speech anticipation condition. Children's frontal theta/beta ratio decreased from baseline to speech anticipation, and this baseline-to-task change moderated the relation between temperamental shyness and social anxiety. Temperamental shyness was related to higher state and trait social anxiety only among children with large baseline-to-task decreases in theta/beta ratio. Findings are consistent with theoretical models hypothesizing that temperamentally shy children with heightened neurocognitive control may be at greater risk for anxiety.
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Social anxiety disorder in children: investigating the relative contribution of automatic thoughts, repetitive negative thinking and metacognitions. Behav Cogn Psychother 2020; 49:159-171. [PMID: 32720630 DOI: 10.1017/s1352465820000430] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is common in youths. However, our understanding of SAD in children is inferior to that of SAD in adolescents or adults, and it is unclear if known adult SAD maintenance mechanisms may also operate in children with SAD. AIM The paper sets out to investigate the specificity of positive automatic thoughts, social threat negative automatic thoughts, repetitive negative thinking, positive and negative metacognitions in predicting SAD symptoms and diagnoses in clinically anxious children. METHOD We enrolled 122 clinically anxious children aged 7-13 years; of these, 33 had an SAD diagnosis. RESULTS SAD symptoms correlated positively with social threat negative automatic thoughts, repetitive negative thinking, and negative metacognitions, and negatively with positive automatic thoughts. Linear regression indicated that, of these variables, only social threat negative automatic thoughts predicted social anxiety symptoms. Logistic regression indicated that social threat negative automatic thoughts, a higher number of diagnoses and negative metacognitive beliefs specifically predicted the presence of SAD diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that content-specific social threat negative automatic thoughts was the only variable that specifically distinguished both higher levels of social anxiety symptoms and diagnoses.
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Meta-analysis of the effectiveness of the Trier Social Stress Test in eliciting physiological stress responses in children and adolescents. Psychoneuroendocrinology 2020; 116:104582. [PMID: 32305745 DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2020.104582] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2019] [Revised: 11/15/2019] [Accepted: 01/07/2020] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) is known to reliably induce physiological stress responses in adult samples. Less is known about its effectiveness to elicit these responses in youth samples. We performed a meta-analysis of stress responses to the TSST in youth participants. Fifty-seven studies were included representing 5026 youth participants. Results indicated that the TSST was effective at eliciting stress responses for salivary cortisol (sCort; effect size [ES] = 0.47, p = 0.006), heart rate (HR; ES = 0.89, p < 0.001), pre-ejection period (PEP; ES = -0.37, p < 0.001), heart rate variability (HRV; ES = -0.33, p = 0.028), and systolic blood pressure (ES = 1.17, p < 0.001), as well as negative affect (ES = 0.57, p = 0.004) and subjective anxiety (ES = 0.80, p = 0.004) in youth samples. Cardiac output (ES = 0.15, p = 0.164), respiratory sinus arrhythmia (ES = -0.10, p = 0.064), and diastolic blood pressure (ES = 2.36, p = 0.072) did not reach statistical significance. Overall, effect sizes for the TSST varied based on the physiological marker used. In addition, several physiological markers demonstrated variance in reactivity by youth age (sCort, HR, HRV, and PEP), gender (sCort), type of sample (i.e., clinical versus community sample; sCort and HR), duration of TSST (sCort, HR, HRV, negative affect, and subjective anxiety), number of judges present in TSST (HR and subjective anxiety), gender of judges (sCort), and time of day the marker was assessed (morning versus afternoon/evening; sCort). Overall, the findings provide support for the validity of the TSST as a psychosocial stressor for inducing physiological and psychological stress responses in children and adolescents, but also highlight that some markers may capture the stress response more effectively than others.
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Baartmans JMD, van Steensel FJA, Mobach L, Lansu TAM, Bijsterbosch G, Verpaalen I, Rapee RM, Magson N, Bögels SM, Rinck M, Klein AM. Social anxiety and perceptions of likeability by peers in children. BRITISH JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2020; 38:319-336. [PMID: 32064647 PMCID: PMC7216937 DOI: 10.1111/bjdp.12324] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2019] [Revised: 01/23/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The current study aimed to investigate the discrepancy between self-reported and peer-reported likeability among children, and the relation with social anxiety, depression, and social support. In total, 532 children between 7 and 12 years completed questionnaires about social anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and social support, estimated their own likeability, and indicated how much they liked their classmates. Children with higher levels of social anxiety or depression overestimated their likeability less or even underestimated their likeability. Social anxiety symptoms, but not depressive symptoms, were significant predictors of the discrepancy. Social support was positively related to likeability and negatively related to social anxiety, but did not moderate the association between social anxiety symptoms and perception accuracy of likeability. These results are in line with cognitive theories of childhood social anxiety, and they stress the importance of using multi-informant measures when studying the relation between social anxiety and social functioning in children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeanine M. D. Baartmans
- Developmental PsychologyUniversity of AmsterdamThe Netherlands
- UvA Minds Academic Treatment CenterAmsterdamThe Netherlands
| | | | - Lynn Mobach
- Behavioural Science InstituteRadboud UniversityNijmegenThe Netherlands
- Centre for Emotional HealthMacquarie UniversitySydneyNew South WalesAustralia
| | - Tessa A. M. Lansu
- Behavioural Science InstituteRadboud UniversityNijmegenThe Netherlands
| | | | - Iris Verpaalen
- Behavioural Science InstituteRadboud UniversityNijmegenThe Netherlands
| | - Ronald M. Rapee
- Centre for Emotional HealthMacquarie UniversitySydneyNew South WalesAustralia
| | - Natasha Magson
- Centre for Emotional HealthMacquarie UniversitySydneyNew South WalesAustralia
| | - Susan M. Bögels
- Developmental PsychologyUniversity of AmsterdamThe Netherlands
| | - Mike Rinck
- Behavioural Science InstituteRadboud UniversityNijmegenThe Netherlands
| | - Anke M. Klein
- Developmental PsychologyUniversity of AmsterdamThe Netherlands
- Behavioural Science InstituteRadboud UniversityNijmegenThe Netherlands
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Baartmans JMD, Rinck M, Hudson JL, Lansu TAM, van Niekerk RE, Bögels SM, Klein AM. Are Socially Anxious Children Really Less Liked, or Do They Only Think So? COGNITIVE THERAPY AND RESEARCH 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s10608-019-10028-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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Thomassin K, Raftery-Helmer J, Hersh J. A Review of Behavioral Observation Coding Approaches for the Trier Social Stress Test for Children. Front Psychol 2018; 9:2610. [PMID: 30619010 PMCID: PMC6308136 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02610] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2018] [Accepted: 12/04/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) has become one of the most widely-used protocols for inducing moderate psychosocial stress in laboratory settings. Observational coding has been used to measure a range of behavioral responses to the TSST including performance, reactions to the task, and markers of stress induced by the task, with clear advantages given increased objectivity of observational measurement over self-report measures. The current review systematically examined all TSST and TSST-related studies with children and adolescents published since the original work of Kirschbaum et al. (1993) to identify behavioral observation coding approaches for the TSST. The search resulted in 29 published articles, dissertations, and master's theses with a wide range of coding approaches used. The take-home finding from the current review is that there is no standard way to code the Trier Social Stress Test for Children (TSST-C), which appears to stem from the uniqueness of investigators' research questions and sample demographics. This lack of standardization prohibits conclusive comparisons between studies and samples. We discuss relevant implications and offer suggestions for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Jacqueline Hersh
- Department of psychology, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, United States
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Klein AM, Flokstra E, van Niekerk R, Klein S, Rapee RM, Hudson JL, Bögels SM, Becker ES, Rinck M. The Role of Self-reports and Behavioral Measures of Interpretation Biases in Children with Varying Levels of Anxiety. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 2018; 49:897-905. [PMID: 29681000 PMCID: PMC6208989 DOI: 10.1007/s10578-018-0804-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
We investigated the role of self-reports and behavioral measures of interpretation biases and their content-specificity in children with varying levels of spider fear and/or social anxiety. In total, 141 selected children from a community sample completed an interpretation bias task with scenarios that were related to either spider threat or social threat. Specific interpretation biases were found; only spider-related interpretation bias and self-reported spider fear predicted unique variance in avoidance behavior on the Behavior Avoidance Task for spiders. Likewise, only social-threat related interpretation bias and self-reported social anxiety predicted anxiety during the Social Speech Task. These findings support the hypothesis that fearful children display cognitive biases that are specific to particular fear-relevant stimuli. Clinically, this insight might be used to improve treatments for anxious children by targeting content-specific interpretation biases related to individual disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anke M Klein
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9104, 6500 HE, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
| | - Emmelie Flokstra
- Clinical Psychology, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Rianne van Niekerk
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9104, 6500 HE, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Steven Klein
- Clinical Psychology, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Ronald M Rapee
- Centre for Emotional Health, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
| | - Jennifer L Hudson
- Centre for Emotional Health, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
| | - Susan M Bögels
- Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Eni S Becker
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9104, 6500 HE, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Mike Rinck
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9104, 6500 HE, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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Klein AM, Bakens R, van Niekerk RE, Ouwens MA, Rapee RM, Bögels SM, Becker ES, Rinck M. The relation between generalized anxiety disorder symptoms and content-specific interpretation biases for auditory stimuli in children. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry 2018; 61:121-127. [PMID: 29990681 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2018.06.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2017] [Revised: 06/22/2018] [Accepted: 06/29/2018] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Cognitive theories of fear suggest that biases in interpretation are content-specific: Fearful children should only interpret materials negatively if they are specifically related to the content of their fear. So far, there are only a few studies available that report on this postulated content-specificity of interpretation processes in childhood fear. The goal of this study was to examine interpretation bias and its content-specificity in children with varying levels of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) symptoms. METHODS In an Auditory Interpretation Task (AIT), two words that differ by one phoneme are acoustically blended so that one can hear only one of the words. In the current AIT, we included GAD-related blends, negatively-valenced fear-related blends and positive blends. Multiple-choice (n = 371) or open-ended (n = 295) responses were collected from 666 nonclinical children between 7 and 13 years of age. RESULTS Children with higher levels of self-reported GAD showed significantly more negative interpretations of ambiguous GAD-related blends in the multiple-choice version than children with lower levels of GAD. There were no differences when interpreting the other ambiguous blends. This result was not found with the open-ended version. LIMITATIONS Effects were relatively small, some GAD-stimuli were sub-optimal, and the task was administered in a classroom setting. Even though we ensured that all children were able to hear all words clearly, this may have impacted the results. CONCLUSIONS The findings only partly support the idea that fearful children display cognitive biases specific for fear-relevant stimuli, and more research is needed to replicate the results and test the usability of the AIT.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anke M Klein
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands; University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
| | - Rian Bakens
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | | | | | - Ronald M Rapee
- Centre for Emotional Health, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
| | | | - Eni S Becker
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Mike Rinck
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands
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