Department of Psychology, Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Montessorilaan, 6525 HR, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Department of Psychology, Centre for Emotional Health, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2019 Oct;50(5):803-814. doi: 10.1007/s10578-019-00883-8.
The current study examined whether children varying in their levels of social anxiety, separation anxiety and spider fear exhibit a negative interpretation bias specific for their fears. Furthermore, age and gender were assessed as moderators of this relation. Children (N = 603) of the age of 7-12 years were asked to solve ambiguous scenarios reflecting social threat, separation threat or spider threat. Children's levels of anxiety were assessed with self-report questionnaires. Results indicated that children scoring higher on self-reported social anxiety, separation anxiety or spider fear, displayed a negative interpretation bias for the threat-scenarios pertaining to their specific anxiety or fear, even after controlling for comorbidity with other anxiety subtypes. Contrary to our hypotheses, we did not find moderating effects of age or gender. These results indicate that even in a community sample, content-specificity of negative interpretation biases is present.
本研究旨在探讨在社会焦虑、分离焦虑和蜘蛛恐惧程度不同的儿童中，是否存在针对其特定恐惧的负性解释偏差。此外，还评估了年龄和性别对这种关系的调节作用。研究招募了 7-12 岁的儿童（N=603），要求他们解决反映社会威胁、分离威胁或蜘蛛威胁的模棱两可的情景。通过自我报告问卷评估儿童的焦虑水平。结果表明，在自我报告的社会焦虑、分离焦虑或蜘蛛恐惧程度较高的儿童中，即使在控制了与其他焦虑亚型的共病后，他们对与特定焦虑或恐惧相关的威胁情景也表现出负性的解释偏差。与我们的假设相反，我们没有发现年龄或性别有调节作用。这些结果表明，即使在社区样本中，负性解释偏差也存在内容特异性。
