Vietmeier Nadine, Tuschen-Caffier Brunna, Asbrand Julia
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099, Berlin, Germany.
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2025 Mar 25;15(1):10220. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-95032-8.
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is highly prevalent in childhood, yet research on cognitive processes in children with SAD is limited. This study examined anticipatory rumination (AR), self-focused attention (SFA), and post-event processing (PEP) in children with SAD and healthy controls (HC), and the impact of possible influencing factors (two conditions: parental support, self-instruction). Based on adult cognitive models, we hypothesized that children with SAD would report more negative and similar positive AR, more internal SFA, similar external focus, more negative and similar positive PEP compared to HCs. We predicted that both conditions would reduce negative AR, internal SFA, and negative PEP, with stronger effects in HCs. Participants (ages 9-14; SAD: n = 43, HC: n = 48) completed two speech tasks (T1, T2) in front of a peer audience. Children with SAD reported more negative AR, internal SFA, and negative PEP than HCs in both sessions. All children reported more negative AR, internal SFA, and negative PEP in T1 than T2. Surprisingly, these effects were equally strong in both groups. Condition effects were comparable across groups, with reduced negative cognitive processes in T2. These findings highlight cognitive biases in childhood SAD and the need for further research on their modifiability.
社交焦虑障碍（SAD）在儿童中非常普遍，但对患有SAD的儿童认知过程的研究有限。本研究考察了患有SAD的儿童和健康对照组（HC）的预期反刍（AR）、自我聚焦注意力（SFA）和事件后加工（PEP），以及可能影响因素（两种情况：父母支持、自我指导）的影响。基于成人认知模型，我们假设与健康对照组相比，患有SAD的儿童会报告更多消极且相似数量的积极AR、更多内部SFA、相似的外部关注点、更多消极且相似数量的积极PEP。我们预测两种情况都会减少消极AR、内部SFA和消极PEP，在健康对照组中的效果更强。参与者（年龄9 - 14岁；SAD组：n = 43，HC组：n = 48）在同龄观众面前完成两项演讲任务（T1、T2）。在两个环节中，患有SAD的儿童比健康对照组报告了更多消极AR、内部SFA和消极PEP。所有儿童在T1中报告的消极AR、内部SFA和消极PEP都比T2中更多。令人惊讶的是，这些影响在两组中同样强烈。不同情况对两组的影响相当，T2中的消极认知过程有所减少。这些发现突出了儿童SAD中的认知偏差以及对其可改变性进行进一步研究的必要性。
