Dalgleish T, Moradi A, Taghavi R, Neshat-Doost H, Yule W, Canterbury R
Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2000 Nov;41(8):981-8.
Research with clinically anxious adults has revealed that they estimate future negative events as far more likely to occur, relative to healthy controls. In addition, anxious adults estimate that such events are more likely to happen to themselves than to others. Previous research with anxious children and adolescents, in contrast, has revealed no increased probability estimates for negative events, relative to controls, and the events were rated as more likely to happen to others than to the self. The present study followed up these discrepant findings by investigating probability judgements concerning future negative events generated by children and adolescents who had actually experienced an extreme negative event and who met criteria for a diagnosis of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Control groups comprised a group of healthy participants, and a group of healthy participants whose parents had experienced a trauma and who met criteria for PTSD. The results revealed no overall differences between the clinical group and the controls. However, children and adolescents with PTSD estimated all negative events as significantly more likely to happen to others than to themselves, with this other-referent bias being strongest for events matched to their trauma. In contrast, the two control groups exhibited an other-referent bias for physically threatening events but not for socially threatening ones. Developmental analyses indicated that the strength of the relationship between anxiety and elevated judgements about future negative events declined with age in the control participants but that there was no significant relationship in the groups who had been exposed to trauma. The findings are discussed in the context of the literature on information processing biases and PTSD.
对临床焦虑的成年人进行的研究表明，与健康对照组相比，他们认为未来负面事件发生的可能性要高得多。此外，焦虑的成年人认为此类事件更有可能发生在自己身上而非他人身上。相比之下，先前针对焦虑儿童和青少年的研究表明，与对照组相比，他们对负面事件发生可能性的估计并未增加，而且这些事件被认为更有可能发生在他人而非自己身上。本研究通过调查实际经历过极端负面事件且符合创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）诊断标准的儿童和青少年对未来负面事件的概率判断，对这些相互矛盾的发现进行了跟进研究。对照组包括一组健康参与者，以及一组父母经历过创伤且符合PTSD标准的健康参与者。结果显示，临床组与对照组之间没有总体差异。然而，患有PTSD的儿童和青少年估计所有负面事件发生在他人身上的可能性明显高于发生在自己身上的可能性，这种他人参照偏差在与他们的创伤相匹配的事件中最为强烈。相比之下，两个对照组在身体威胁事件上表现出他人参照偏差，但在社会威胁事件上则没有。发展分析表明，在对照组参与者中，焦虑与对未来负面事件的高判断之间的关系强度随着年龄的增长而下降，但在遭受过创伤的组中则没有显著关系。我们将在关于信息处理偏差和PTSD的文献背景下讨论这些发现。
