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Experimental modification of interpretation bias in socially anxious children: Changes in interpretation, anticipated interpersonal anxiety, and social anxiety symptoms

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2009.07.018Get rights and content

Abstract

We report on an experimental manipulation of interpretation bias in socially anxious youths. A non-clinical sample of 10–11-year-olds selected for high social anxiety was trained over three sessions to endorse benign rather than negative interpretations of potentially threatening social scenarios. This group was subsequently less likely to endorse negative interpretations of new ambiguous social situations than children in a test–retest condition. Children who received interpretation training also showed reduced trait social anxiety and reported significantly less anxiety about an anticipated interpersonal encounter, compared with the control group.

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Participants

One hundred and forty-five primary school children aged 10–11-year-olds were initially screened for participation in the study. The final sample consisted of 43 children selected as high on the social anxiety scale for children (SASC-R; La Greca & Stone, 1993). The children were recruited from three regular primary schools in the south west of Greece, and all were White Europeans. The mean age of the children was 10.6 years (SD = .5, range 10–11 years). All children were recruited with the

Results

All participants completed the pre-assessment and post-assessment. Groups did not significantly differ in levels of social anxiety, depression, negative interpretation ratings or benign interpretation ratings at pre-assessment. Means and standard deviations are presented in Table 1. Gender was initially included as a between-subject factor in all analyses, but this variable failed to yield any significant main effects or interactions so we collapsed across gender in the reported analyses.

Discussion

The present study has shown that it is possible to modify interpretation biases in relatively high socially anxious children, extending the results reported by Muris et al., 2008, Muris et al., 2009 and converging with expectations from previous findings reported in the adult literature. Specifically, primary school children selected for scoring high on social anxiety, who received three sessions of training designed to influence interpretation biases in a less negative and more positive

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