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，对各种功能领域都有不利影响。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见的代际传递可能解释了这种关系。本研究的主要目的是：1）确定适应自我解释偏见修改程序的可行性，实验范式是人际关系的性质和2）确定是否修改的儿童所指的威胁解释焦虑的母亲可以改变的解释偏见的威胁信息的传输给他们的孩子。结果将有助于一个新兴的研究机构探索改善效果的实验范式，目标信息处理偏见在焦虑的青年。研究结果可能对改善目前焦虑儿童的预防和治疗方案有影响。本研究的具体目的是：1）调查使用儿童指称信息的解释修正训练是否可以改变焦虑信息处理风格从临床焦虑的母亲到他们的孩子在一个特定的焦虑激发任务的背景下，2）检查特定的解释修正对焦虑的母亲和他们的孩子的一般解释偏见的影响。为了解决这些目标，一项实验研究将随机分配临床焦虑的母亲接受一种训练范式，教导她们以积极、良性的方式解释儿童所指的模糊情况，或者接受一种控制条件，不训练以积极或消极的方向解释这种情况。然后，孩子们将被要求参加一个引发焦虑的演讲任务。他们将有时间讨论他们将如何与母亲一起完成任务，而母亲在互动过程中的行为将由客观的观察者编码。讨论结束后，孩子和母亲将被问到他们认为这项任务有多危险。最后，儿童的焦虑，生理活动，并在任务的表现将进行评估。研究表明，焦虑的母亲与孩子互动的方式是“训练”他们在环境中看到威胁。因此，假设与对照条件相比，积极的解释训练将导致较少的这种类型的焦虑的母亲行为，降低的威胁感知（即，焦虑认知），以及儿童焦虑行为减少，生理唤醒减少，言语任务表现更好。最后，据预测，这一程序将减少母亲和儿童的一般解释偏见。 公共卫生相关性：儿童和青少年焦虑症的高发病率使其成为一个公共卫生问题;然而，目前对此类疾病的黄金标准治疗仅对这些青少年中的60-70%有效。我们知道焦虑症在家庭中流行，可能是父母无意中“训练”孩子看到周围环境中的威胁而传播的。这项研究旨在“重新训练”焦虑的母亲，使她们在孩子的环境中看到更少的威胁，因此有可能帮助预防高危青少年焦虑症的发作。

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. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The high rates of anxiety disorders among children and adolescents make it a public health issue; however, the gold standard treatment for such disorders is currently only effective for about 60-70% of these youth. We know that anxiety disorders run in families and may be passed on by parents who inadvertently "train" their children to see threat in their surroundings. This research aims to "re-train" anxious mothers to see less threat in their children's environment and therefore has the potential to help prevent the onset of anxiety disorders in at-risk youth.