Journal of anxiety disorders
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Cognitive and psycho-physiological models of panic disorder stress the role of interpretation bias in the maintenance of the disorder. Several studies have reported results consistent with this hypothesis, but it is still unclear whether this bias precedes panic disorder or is a consequence of it. In the present study, we compared the interpretations of ambiguous scenarios of children of individuals with panic disorder, children of individuals with animal phobia, and children of healthy controls. ⋯ The results revealed that (a) children of panic disordered parents but not of parents with animal phobia and of healthy controls showed a significant increase in anxious interpretations after priming; and (b) this significant increase emerged only after priming through presentation of a panic-relevant model and not after priming through presentation of a phobia-relevant or cold-relevant model. Because the children of panic disordered parents did not have panics themselves, their increase in panic interpretations can be viewed as a vulnerability factor. Longitudinal studies should clarify the role of interpretation style in the etiology of panic disorder.
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Two studies are described which used think-aloud (Study 1) and verbal thought-listing (Studies 1 and 2) procedures to assess preadolescent children's self-talk under conditions of mild anxiety. The self-talk reported was coded into six theoretically meaningful categories and the relationship between self-talk type and anxiety (state and trait) examined. ⋯ From the data, it is unclear to what extent perceived task difficulty contributes to the relationship between trait anxiety and negative self-talk. Assessment of self-regulation (Study 1) identified higher levels of anxiety in children reporting awareness of strategies for managing their anxiety.