Effects of Maternal Interpretation Biases on Child Anxiety and Related Responses

描述(申请人提供)：儿童焦虑症(AD)是青少年最常见的心理健康障碍，终生患病率超过30%。研究表明，儿童阿尔茨海默病会导致严重的慢性损害，包括学业成绩低下和早年辍学；同伴困难；身体健康问题；抑郁和药物使用；以及自杀风险增加。因此，迫切需要从公共卫生、预防和经济角度确定与儿童阿尔茨海默病发展有关的潜在机制。鉴于信息处理因素在儿童AD中的核心作用，以及亲子关系在塑造儿童如何解释他们的环境方面的重要性，研究人员强调了研究父母如何塑造儿童解释策略的必要性，这些策略与儿童焦虑之间存在因果关系。更具体地说，需要研究来检验母亲的解释偏差是否会增加儿童解释偏差，从而增加儿童焦虑的风险。本研究的目的是考察母亲口译偏差对130名AD儿童的口译偏差和儿童焦虑症状的影响。患有阿尔茨海默病儿童的临床焦虑的母亲将被随机分配到培训计划中，该计划教会她们以积极的方向解读与儿童有关的模棱两可的情况，或者不训练母亲以积极或消极的方式解读情况。随后，孩子们将被要求参与一项引发焦虑的演讲任务。母亲和她们的孩子将讨论他们将如何处理这项任务；母亲在讨论过程中的行为将被观察者编码为对训练条件“盲目”。在讨论之后，将对儿童和母亲的解释偏差进行评估。最后，将评估儿童在任务中的焦虑行为、生理唤醒和表现。我们预计，那些接受过以积极方式解释与儿童相关的模棱两可情况的临床焦虑母亲(与那些没有接受过此类培训的母亲相比)将表现出较少的焦虑行为，并将言语任务评为不那么具有威胁性。我们还预计，与没有接受过口译偏向训练的临床焦虑母亲的孩子相比，接受过以积极方式解释与儿童有关的模棱两可情况的临床焦虑母亲的孩子会认为言语任务的威胁性较小。我们还预测，接受过积极口译偏向训练的临床焦虑母亲的孩子(与没有接受这种训练的母亲相比)在言语任务中表现出较低的焦虑，表现为(A)较低的观察者评定的焦虑行为，(B)增加的呼吸窦性心律失常，以及(C)较高的观察者评定的言语任务表现。最后，我们预测，儿童中的社交恐惧症(SOP)诊断将缓和母亲口译偏差与儿童焦虑症状之间的关联，因此在言语任务中，SOP儿童与其他AD儿童相比，母亲口译偏差与儿童焦虑之间的关联将更强。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Childhood anxiety disorders (AD) are the most common mental health disorder in youth, with lifetime prevalence rates exceeding 30%. Research shows that childhood AD lead to significant and chronic impairment, including school underachievement and early dropout; peer difficulties; physical health problems; depression and substance use; and increased risk for suicide. Consequently, there is a strong need to identify potential mechanisms involved in the development of childhood AD, from public health, prevention, and economic standpoints. Given the central role of information processing factors in childhood AD, as well as the importance of the parent-child relationship in shaping how children interpret their environment, researchers have highlighted the need for research examining how parents shape child interpretation strategies known to be causally related to childhood anxiety. More specifically, research is needed to examine if maternal interpretation biases heighten the risk for childhood anxiety by increasing child interpretation biases. The goal of this study is to examine the effects of maternal interpretation biases on child interpretation biases and child anxiety symptoms among 130 children with AD. Clinically anxious mothers of children with AD will be randomly assigned to either a training program that teaches them to interpret child-related ambiguous situations in a positive direction or a neutral condition that does not train mothers to interpret situations in either a positive or negative manner. Children will subsequently be asked to participate in an anxiety-provoking speech task. Mothers and their children will discuss how they will approach the task; mothers' behavior during this discussion will be coded by observers "blind" to training condition. Following the discussion, children and mothers interpretation biases will be assessed. Finally, children's anxious behavior, physiological arousal, and performance during the task will be assessed. We expect that clinically anxious mothers who are trained to interpret child-related ambiguous situations in a positive manner (vs. those who do not receive such training) will exhibit reduced anxious behavior and rate the speech task as less threatening. We also expect that children of clinically anxious mothers who are trained to interpret child-related ambiguous situations in a positive manner will rate the speech task as less threatening than children of clinically anxious mothers who do not receive interpretation bias training. We also predict that children of clinically anxiou mothers who receive positive interpretation bias training (vs. those who do not receive such training) will exhibit lower anxiety during the speech task, as evidenced by (a) lower observer-rated anxious behavior, (b) increased respiratory sinus arrhythmia, and (c) higher observer-rated performance during the speech task. Finally, we predict that a social phobia (SoP) diagnosis in children will moderate the association between maternal interpretation biases and child anxiety symptoms, such that the association between maternal interpretation biases and child anxiety during the speech task will be stronger for children with SoP vs. other AD.