Projective-cognitive assessment of thoughts and feelings and their relationship to adaptive behavior in a dental situation.

The purpose of this study is to examine the interrelationships among coping statements, a self-report measure of anxiety and maladaptive overt behavior in a real-life stressful situation. Measures of these variables (interviews using TAT-like cards, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children, Behavior Profile Rating Scale) were taken from 23 adolescents prior to and during their dental visit. Results indicated that as disruptive "in-chair" overt behavior increased, so did the percentage of coping statements. In addition, as self-report levels of anxiety increased, the percentage of coping statements significantly decreased. Interestingly, there was no significant relationship between self-report levels of anxiety and disruptive in-chair behavior. It was also noted that the subjects' self-report levels of anxiety significantly decreased following their opportunity to verbalize their coping/noncoping statements via the TAT-like procedure. The implications of these interrelationships to cognitive-behavioral theory are discussed.