Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry最新文献

{"title":"The effect of self-focused attention during mirror gazing on body image evaluations, appearance-related imagery, and urges to mirror gaze","authors":"Jasmine Chuah,&nbsp;Oliver Suendermann","doi":"10.1016/j.jbtep.2024.101952","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbtep.2024.101952","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background and objectives</h3><p>Mirror gazing has been linked to poor body image. Cognitive-behavioral models propose that mirror gazing induces self-focused attention. This activates appearance-related imagery, increases body dissatisfaction, and promotes further mirror gazing. However, evidence for these relationships remains scarce. Our study experimentally investigated how self-focused attention impacts overall and facial appearance satisfaction, perceived attractiveness, distress about appearance and disliked features, vividness and emotional quality of appearance-related imagery, and urges to mirror gaze. Baseline body dysmorphic concerns were studied as a moderator.</p></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><p>Singaporean undergraduates (<em>M</em>_age = 21.22, <em>SD</em>_age = 1.62; 35 females, 28 males) were randomly assigned to high or low self-focused attention during a mirror gazing task. Dependent variables were measured with visual analogue scales, and body dysmorphic concerns with the Body Image Disturbance Questionnaire (BIDQ). Analysis of variance and moderation analyses were conducted.</p></div><div><h3>Results</h3><p>Self-focused attention lowered overall and facial appearance satisfaction. Perceived attractiveness decreased only in individuals with high baseline body dysmorphic concerns. Contrary to predictions, distress, appearance-related imagery, and urges to mirror gaze were unaffected.</p></div><div><h3>Limitations</h3><p>This study used a non-clinical sample. The BIDQ has not been psychometrically validated in Singaporean samples.</p></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>Self-focused attention during mirror gazing lowers positive body image evaluations. Individuals with higher body dysmorphic concerns are particularly vulnerable to low perceived attractiveness.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48198,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry","volume":"84 ","pages":"Article 101952"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005791624000119/pdfft?md5=1f8f8e1095c24c2250447596dd239016&pid=1-s2.0-S0005791624000119-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140047915","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Non-fear emotions in changes in posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms during treatment","authors":"Sophie A. Rameckers ,&nbsp;Arnold A.P. van Emmerik ,&nbsp;Raoul P.P.P. Grasman ,&nbsp;Arnoud Arntz","doi":"10.1016/j.jbtep.2024.101954","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbtep.2024.101954","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background and objectives</h3><p>Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is not only associated with fear but also with other emotions. The present study aimed to examine if changes in shame, guilt, anger, and disgust predicted changes in PTSD symptoms during treatment, while also testing if PTSD symptoms, in turn, predicted changes in these emotions.</p></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><p>Participants (<em>N</em> = 155) with childhood-related PTSD received a maximum of 12 sessions of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing or imagery rescripting. The data was analyzed using Granger causality models across 12 treatment sessions and 6 assessment sessions (up until one year after the start of treatment). Differences between the two treatments were explored.</p></div><div><h3>Results</h3><p>Across treatment sessions, shame, and disgust showed a reciprocal relationship with PTSD symptoms, while changes in guilt preceded PTSD symptoms. Across assessments, anger was reciprocally related to PTSD, suggesting that anger might play a more important role in the longer term.</p></div><div><h3>Limitations</h3><p>The individual emotion items were not yet validated, and the CAPS was not administered at all assessments.</p></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>These findings partly differ from earlier studies that suggested a unidirectional relationship in which changes in emotions preceded changes in PTSD symptoms during treatment. This is in line with the idea that non-fear emotions do play an important role in the treatment of PTSD and constitute an important focus of treatment and further research.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48198,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry","volume":"84 ","pages":"Article 101954"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-02-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140047950","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Testing a brief attention training protocol to prevent emotional distress from a fear induction procedure","authors":"Mikael Rubin","doi":"10.1016/j.jbtep.2024.101956","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2024.101956","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background and objectives</h3><p>Attentional hypervigilance to threat in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an important topic to investigate. Efforts to leverage attention training to prevent PTSD have been promising but underlying mechanisms have not been fully elucidated. The current study tested whether Attention Bias Modification (ABM) prior to an emotion induction of fear could reduce self-reported fear and arousal compared to two control conditions.</p></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><p>Participants (N = 86) were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and randomized to receive either (1) ABM where they were directed towards fear related words on every trial; (2) Attention Control Training (ACT) where they were directed towards fear related words on 50% of trials; or (3) Neutral training where all words were neutral. Participants then completed a fear emotion induction (a 2-min video), reporting fear, arousal, and mood before and after the emotion induction.</p></div><div><h3>Results</h3><p>Participants in the ABM condition had lower fear compared to the Neutral condition <em>b</em> = 11.43, 95% CI (1.20, 21.65), <em>d</em> = 0.48. Participants in the ABM condition did not have lower fear compared to the ACT condition <em>b</em> = 9.75, 95% CI (−0.64, 19.96), <em>d</em> = 0.41. Importantly, attentional avoidance at baseline moderated the effect of condition for both fear and arousal; higher avoidance at baseline for the ABM condition was associated with lower fear and arousal after the emotion induction compared to the Neutral condition.</p></div><div><h3>Limitations</h3><p>The sample size was relatively small and limited in diversity.</p></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>These findings are the first experimental evidence showing that the benefit of ABM prior to a fearful experience may be in its reduction of the target emotion. Additionally, ABM may work best for those that demonstrate the most avoidance at baseline in their attention towards fearful stimuli.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48198,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry","volume":"84 ","pages":"Article 101956"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140030342","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Embodied cognitive restructuring: The impact of posture and movement on changing dysfunctional attitudes","authors":"M.S. O’Toole ,&nbsp;J. Michalak","doi":"10.1016/j.jbtep.2024.101955","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2024.101955","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background and objectives</h3><p>Previous theoretical and empirical work has pointed to the important role of the body in emotion generation and emotion regulation. In the present study, we wanted to investigate if the performance of certain body postures and movement could facilitate cognitive restructuring of dysfunctional cognitive attitudes more effectively than traditional, verbal-only methods.</p></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><p>In total, 130 participants were randomized to one of two groups. One group was subjected to cognitive restructuring (i.e., restructure only group; CR-only), verbally exploring a dysfunctional attitude from a curious, strong, and courageous perspective. The other group received the same verbal instructions but in addition to this, was asked to perform different bodily exercises (i.e., motor-enhanced restructuring group; M-CR) supposed to enhance experience of the different perspectives from which cognitive restructuring was employed.</p></div><div><h3>Results</h3><p>Results confirmed the primary hypothesis, showing that the M-CR-group showed a larger decline in belief in dysfunctional attitudes compared with the CR-only group (<em>F</em> = 4.2, <em>p</em> = 0.041, <em>d</em> = 0.25). No differences on secondary outcomes were observed between the two groups.</p></div><div><h3>Limitations</h3><p>Future research should explore the effects of motor-enhanced CR both more long-term (e.g., durability over weeks) and in clinical samples (e.g., anxiety and depression).</p></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><p>Should the findings be replicated in clinical samples, it is encouraging that simple bodily exercises can enhance the effect of one of the most central skills of cognitive therapy.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48198,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry","volume":"84 ","pages":"Article 101955"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005791624000144/pdfft?md5=b69463ea2a29695daa236ab78250bb55&pid=1-s2.0-S0005791624000144-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139998945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fear-related associations in children of parents with an anxiety disorder","authors":"Anke M. Klein ,&nbsp;Rianne E. Van Niekerk ,&nbsp;Esther Allart Van Dam ,&nbsp;Mike Rinck ,&nbsp;Marc J.P.M. Verbraak ,&nbsp;Giel J.M. Hutschemaekers ,&nbsp;Eni S. Becker","doi":"10.1016/j.jbtep.2024.101953","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbtep.2024.101953","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background and objectives</h3><p>Children of parents with an anxiety disorder are at elevated risk for developing an anxiety disorder themselves. According to cognitive theories, a possible risk factor is the development of schema-related associations. This study is the first to investigate whether children of anxious parents display fear-related associations and whether these associations relate to parental anxiety.</p></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><p>44 children of parents with panic disorder, 27 children of parents with social anxiety disorder, and 84 children of parents without an anxiety disorder filled out the SCARED-71, and the children performed an Affective Priming Task.</p></div><div><h3>Results</h3><p>We found partial evidence for disorder-specificity: When the primes were related to their parent's disorder and the targets were negative, the children of parents with panic disorder and children of parents with social anxiety disorder showed the lowest error rates related to their parents' disorder, but they did not have faster responses. We did not find any evidence for the expected specificity in the relationship between the parents' or the children's self-reported anxiety and the children's fear-related associations, as measured with the APT.</p></div><div><h3>Limitations</h3><p>Reliability of the Affective Priming Task was moderate, and power was low for finding small interaction effects.</p></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>Whereas clearly more research is needed, our results suggest that negative associations may qualify as a possible vulnerability factor for children of parents with an anxiety disorder.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48198,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry","volume":"84 ","pages":"Article 101953"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139919374","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sleep-related attentional bias in insomnia: The mediating role of arousal","authors":"Cindy Lebrun ,&nbsp;Pom Charras ,&nbsp;Sophie Bayard","doi":"10.1016/j.jbtep.2024.101943","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbtep.2024.101943","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background and objectives</h3><p>Characterize the nature of attentional biases toward nocturnal and diurnal sleep-related stimuli in individuals with insomnia disorder. We investigated the contributing role of sleep-related attentional biases in insomnia severity and whether their effects on insomnia severity were mediated by arousal and valence levels of the presented stimuli.</p></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><p>Sixty-four individuals with insomnia disorder and 70 controls completed two Posner spatial cueing tasks including both nocturnal (alarm clocks) and diurnal (fatigue) pictorial stimuli associated with neutral cues. Arousal and valence of the sleep-related stimuli were assessed using a 5-point Likert type scale.</p></div><div><h3>Results</h3><p>Attention biases characterized by difficulty disengaging from and increased avoidance for daytime fatigue, and by difficulty disengaging from alarm clocks were observed in individuals with insomnia disorder compared to controls. On the whole sample, difficulty to disengage from diurnal and nocturnal sleep-related stimuli were related mostly to higher arousal rating of sleep-related stimuli and insomnia severity. Higher arousal rating for sleep-related stimuli mediates the relationship between difficulty disengaging and insomnia severity.</p></div><div><h3>Limitations</h3><p>The cross-sectional nature of the study.</p></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>We provide first initial evidence for an attentional bias characterized by on one side, avoidance for diurnal sleep-related stimuli and on other side, disengagement for both diurnal and nocturnal sleep-related stimuli in patients with insomnia. Disengagement difficulties for both diurnal and nocturnal sleep-related stimuli indirectly affected insomnia severity through arousal elicited by these stimuli. It appears important to develop and apply attentional bias modification training therapeutic interventions that can effectively reduce sleep-related arousal and attentional biases.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48198,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry","volume":"83 ","pages":"Article 101943"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139678175","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effectiveness of exposure-based treatment for childhood anxiety disorders: An open clinical trial to test its relation with indices of emotional processing and inhibitory learning","authors":"Rachel de Jong ,&nbsp;Miriam J.J. Lommen ,&nbsp;Peter J. de Jong ,&nbsp;Wiljo J.P.J. van Hout ,&nbsp;Adina C.E. Duin-van der Marel ,&nbsp;Maaike H. Nauta","doi":"10.1016/j.jbtep.2024.101942","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbtep.2024.101942","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background and objectives</h3><p>The current study examined how effectiveness of exposure-based CBT was related to indices of emotional processing and inhibitory learning during exposure exercises.</p></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><p>Adolescents with anxiety disorder(s) (N = 72; age 11–19; 85% girls) received a group-based, intensive two-week treatment of which effectiveness was indexed by the SCARED and by ratings of anxiety and approach towards individualized goal situations. To index emotional processing, subjective units of distress (SUDs) were used to indicate both initial and final fear level, and absolute, relative, and total dose of fear reduction. To index inhibitory learning, subjective threat expectancies (STEs) were used to indicate initial and final threat expectancy, and absolute, relative, and total dose of expectancy change.</p></div><div><h3>Results</h3><p>From pre-treatment to follow-up, there was a large-sized reduction of anxiety symptoms, small-sized decrease of subjective anxiety and a large-sized increase in subjective approach towards individual treatment goals. Higher fear levels prior to exposure were related to a larger decrease of symptoms. Higher threat expectancies after exposure exercises were independently associated with less decrease of anxiety and increase of approach towards treatment goals. Total dose of experienced fear reduction and total dose of experienced expectancy change were (partly) independently related to more increase in approach towards individualized goal situations.</p></div><div><h3>Limitations</h3><p>As patients also received other treatment elements, the results cannot be interpreted unequivocally.</p></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>The pattern of findings seems to indicate that emotional processing (as indexed by fear reduction) and inhibitory learning (as indexed by expectancy change) are both relevant in exposure-based CBT.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48198,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry","volume":"83 ","pages":"Article 101942"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005791624000016/pdfft?md5=4964d8cd2c2734fd5d09537949ac23b9&pid=1-s2.0-S0005791624000016-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139516681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Aversive conditioning is impaired in impulsive individuals: A study on learning asymmetries","authors":"Laurens T. Kemp, Tom Smeets, Anita Jansen, Katrijn Houben","doi":"10.1016/j.jbtep.2023.101939","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2023.101939","url":null,"abstract":"<h3>Background and objectives</h3><p>Appetitive and aversive conditioning are thought to be involved in the development and maintenance of mental disorders including anxiety, mood, eating, and substance use disorders. However, few studies measure the relative strength of appetitive and aversive associations, and their relevance to the risk of mental disorders. This study aims to address this gap.</p><h3>Methods</h3><p>We tested how readily healthy volunteers acquire appetitive vs. aversive associations. 150 participants associated complex 3D objects with either gain or loss and made decisions to gain or avoid losing points. We investigated the relationship of a learning asymmetry with neuroticism, impulsivity, and anhedonia, to test the hypothesis that a stronger learning asymmetry corresponds to more extreme scores on these traits.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>Impulsivity was positively associated with the learning asymmetry (R² = 0.10). This resulted from an inverse relation with the strength of aversive associations, indicating that impulsive individuals are worse at aversive learning. However, appetitive associations did not differ significantly. No correlations with neuroticism or anhedonia were found.</p><h3>Limitations</h3><p>Conditioning studies typically use primary reinforcers and a <em>C</em>S-. Lacking these may make these results less comparable to other studies.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>We demonstrate that the learning asymmetry can measure individual differences linked to personality traits, and that impulsivity, normally linked with appetitive learning, also influences aversive learning. These results enable additional studies of learning asymmetry in relation to mental disorders, which could include measurements of mental health symptoms to provide further insight into how appetitive and aversive learning interacts with mental disorders.</p>","PeriodicalId":48198,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139031308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Aversive conditioning is impaired in impulsive individuals: A study on learning asymmetries","authors":"Laurens T. Kemp ,&nbsp;Tom Smeets ,&nbsp;Anita Jansen ,&nbsp;Katrijn Houben","doi":"10.1016/j.jbtep.2023.101939","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbtep.2023.101939","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background and objectives</h3><p>Appetitive and aversive conditioning are thought to be involved in the development and maintenance of mental disorders including anxiety, mood, eating, and substance use disorders. However, few studies measure the relative strength of appetitive and aversive associations, and their relevance to the risk of mental disorders. This study aims to address this gap.</p></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><p>We tested how readily healthy volunteers acquire appetitive vs. aversive associations. 150 participants associated complex 3D objects with either gain or loss and made decisions to gain or avoid losing points. We investigated the relationship of a learning asymmetry with neuroticism, impulsivity, and anhedonia, to test the hypothesis that a stronger learning asymmetry corresponds to more extreme scores on these traits.</p></div><div><h3>Results</h3><p>Impulsivity was positively associated with the learning asymmetry (R² = .10). This resulted from an inverse relation with the strength of aversive associations, indicating that impulsive individuals are worse at aversive learning. However, appetitive associations did not differ significantly. No correlations with neuroticism or anhedonia were found.</p></div><div><h3>Limitations</h3><p>Conditioning studies typically use primary reinforcers and a CS-. Lacking these may make these results less comparable to other studies.</p></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>We demonstrate that the learning asymmetry can measure individual differences linked to personality traits, and that impulsivity, normally linked with appetitive learning, also influences aversive learning. These results enable additional studies of learning asymmetry in relation to mental disorders, which could include measurements of mental health symptoms to provide further insight into how appetitive and aversive learning interacts with mental disorders.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48198,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry","volume":"83 ","pages":"Article 101939"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005791623001064/pdfft?md5=74a0514f6aa81c645bee640e27417dfa&pid=1-s2.0-S0005791623001064-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139019417","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Interpretation biases in childhood spider fear: Content-specificity, priming, and avoidance","authors":"Anke M. Klein ,&nbsp;Rianne E. van Niekerk ,&nbsp;Mike Rinck ,&nbsp;Esther Allart ,&nbsp;Eni S. Becker","doi":"10.1016/j.jbtep.2023.101941","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbtep.2023.101941","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background and objectives</h3><p>The relation between fear and interpretation bias has been widely studied in children. However, much less is known about its content-specificity and how interpretation biases predict variance in avoidance. The current study examined different interpretation bias tasks, the role of priming and the ability of the interpretation bias tasks to predict spider fear-related avoidance behaviour.</p></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><p>169 children with varying levels of spider fear performed a behavioural avoidance task, two versions of the Ambiguous Scenarios Task (AST; with and without priming), and a size and distance estimation task.</p></div><div><h3>Results</h3><p>Both versions of the AST and the size-estimation were significantly related to self-reported spider fear and avoidance. These relations were content-specific: children with higher levels of spider fear had a more negative interpretation bias related to spider-related materials than to other materials, and a more negative bias than children with lower levels of spider fear. Furthermore, self-reported spider fear, the AST with priming, and the size-estimation predicted unique variance in avoidance behaviour.</p></div><div><h3>Limitations</h3><p>Children varied in their level of spider fear, but clinical diagnoses of spider phobia were not assessed. The participants of this study were not randomly selected, they were children of parents with panic disorder or social anxiety disorder or no anxiety disorder and could therefore partly be seen as children at risk.</p></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>The results support cognitive models of childhood anxiety and indicate that both controlled and automatic processes play an important role in fear-related behaviour.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48198,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry","volume":"83 ","pages":"Article 101941"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139018529","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}