Threat interpretation in anxious children and their mothers: comparison with nonclinical children and the effects of treatment

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Abstract

Interpretation biases towards threat play a prominent role in cognitive theories of anxiety, and have been identified amongst highly anxious adults and children. Little is known, however, about the development of these cognitive biases although family processes have been implicated. The current study investigated the nature of threat interpretation of anxious children and their mothers through (i) comparison of a clinic and non-clinic population, (ii) analysis of individual differences; and (iii) pre- and post-treatment comparisons. Participants were 27 children with a primary anxiety disorder and 33 children from a non-clinic population and their mothers. Children and mothers completed self-report measures of anxiety and indicated their most likely interpretation of ambiguous scenarios. Clinic and non-clinical groups differed significantly on measures of threat interpretation. Furthermore, mothers’ and children's threat interpretation correlated significantly. Following treatment for child anxiety, both children and their mothers reported a reduction in threat interpretation.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants were 60 children and their mothers (27 children with anxiety disorders, 33 non-clinical children). All children were aged between 7 and 15 years of age (clinical children mean=132.85 months (sd=27.94); non-clinical children mean=130.19 (sd=28.51). There were 13 boys and 14 girls in the clinical group and 12 boys and 21 girls in the non-clinical group. The majority of children lived in two-parent families (clinical 66.67%, non-clinical 72.72%). While individual SES data were not

Results

Differences between the clinical and non-clinical groups were analysed using independent samples t-tests and paired-samples t-tests were used to compare the clinical group before and after treatment. Data are presented in Table 1.

Discussion

The findings of the current study replicate previous research to suggest that clinically anxious children interpret ambiguous situations as more threatening than non-anxious children (e.g., Barrett, Dadds, & Rapee (1996), Barrett, Rapee, Dadds, & Ryan (1996)). As has also been reported amongst non-clinical populations, child anxiety and threat interpretation were found to be associated with each other (e.g., Muris, Rapee, Meesters, Shouten, & Geers, 2003). What is novel to this study is the

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Jennifer Hudson for help with the data collection. This study was supported by a grant from the Australian Rotary Health Research Fund to the third author.

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