Modification of Interpretation Bias for Intergenerational Anxiety Tranmission

描述(由申请人提供)：焦虑症在儿童时期非常常见，对功能的各个领域都有不利影响。焦虑在孩子和他们的母亲之间也是高度一致的，研究表明，对威胁信息的解释偏差的代际传递可能解释了这种关系。本研究的主要目的是：1)确定将内部解释偏差修正程序应用于人际关系性质的实验范式的可行性；2)确定修改焦虑母亲对儿童的威胁解释是否可以改变威胁信息对其孩子的解释偏差的传递。结果将有助于一个新兴的研究机构，探索针对焦虑青年的信息处理偏见的实验范式的改善效果。这一发现可能会对改善目前可用于焦虑儿童的预防和治疗方案产生影响。本研究的具体目的是：1)考察在特定的焦虑性任务中，使用儿童相关信息的口译修改训练是否能够改变焦虑母亲向其子女传递焦虑信息的方式；2)考察特定的口译修改对焦虑母亲及其子女的一般口译偏向的影响。为了达到这些目标，一项实验研究将随机分配临床焦虑的母亲，让他们接受一种训练范例，教她们以积极、良性的方式解释与儿童有关的模棱两可的情况，或者接受控制条件，不训练对这种情况的积极或消极的解释。然后，孩子们将被要求参与一项引发焦虑的演讲任务。他们将有时间与母亲讨论如何处理这项任务，母亲在互动过程中的行为将由客观的观察者编码。在讨论之后，孩子和母亲将被问及他们认为这项任务的威胁有多大。最后，将评估儿童在任务中的焦虑、生理激活和表现。研究表明，焦虑的母亲与孩子互动的方式是“训练”他们看到周围环境中的威胁。因此，与对照条件相比，积极口译训练将导致母亲和儿童减少这种类型的焦虑母亲行为，减少母亲和儿童的威胁感知(即焦虑认知)，减少儿童行为焦虑，减少生理唤醒，提高言语任务的表现。最后，预测这一过程将减少母亲和孩子的一般解释偏差。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Anxiety disorders are extremely common in childhood and have detrimental effects on various domains of functioning. Anxiety is also highly concordant between children and their mothers, with studies suggesting that the intergenerational transmission of an interpretation bias for threatening information may explain this relationship. The primary objectives of this study are to: 1) determine the feasibility of adapting intrapersonal interpretation bias modification programs into experimental paradigms that are interpersonal in nature and 2) determine if modifying the child-referent threat interpretations of anxious mothers can alter the transmission of an interpretation bias for threatening information to their children. Results will contribute to an emerging body of research exploring the ameliorating effects of experimental paradigms that target information processing biases in anxious youth. Findings may have implications for improving the current prevention and treatment options available for anxious children. The specific aims of the study are to: 1) investigate whether interpretation modification training using child-referent information can alter the transmission of an anxious information processing style from clinically anxious mothers to their children in the context of a specific anxiety- provoking task and 2) examine the effect that specific interpretation modification has on general interpretation biases in anxious mothers and their children. To address these aims, an experimental study will randomly assign clinically anxious mothers to receive either a training paradigm that teaches them to interpret child- referent ambiguous situations in a positive, benign manner or a control condition that does not train interpretation of such situations in either a positive or negative direction. Children will then be asked to participate in an anxiety-provoking speech task. They will be given time to discuss how they will approach the task with their mother and mothers' behavior during this interaction will be coded by objective observers. Following the discussion, children and mothers will be asked how threatening they perceive the task to be. Finally, children's anxiety, physiological activation, and performance during the task will be assessed. Research shows that anxious mothers interact with their children in ways that "train" them toward seeing threat in their environment. It is therefore hypothesized that the positive interpretation training, compared to the control condition, will result in less of this type of anxious maternal behavior, decreased perception of threat (i.e., anxious cognitions) in mothers and children, as well as less anxious child behavior, less physiological arousal, and better performance on the speech task. Lastly, it is predicted that this procedure will decrease both mother and child general interpretation biases.