Anxiety sensitivity and attentional bias to threat interact to prospectively predict anxiety

The purpose of the present study was to examine anxiety sensitivity, attentional bias to threat (ABT), and the aggregate influence of these constructs as prospective predictors of anxiety. Participants (N = 176) completed a baseline assessment session which included the completion of self-report measures of anxiety and anxiety sensitivity, as well as an eye-tracking task in which eye movements were recorded during the viewing of neutral and threat images. Measures of anxiety and anxiety sensitivity were completed again as part of an online questionnaire battery at a 1-year follow-up session. As predicted, baseline anxiety sensitivity and ABT predicted anxiety at 1-year follow-up even after accounting for baseline anxiety. However, these main effects were qualified by a significant interaction effect such that those high in anxiety sensitivity at baseline reported relatively higher anxiety at the 1-year follow-up, but only if they also exhibited higher levels of ABT at baseline. Results suggest that individuals with this combination of vulnerability factors (high levels of both anxiety sensitivity and ABT) may be at particularly high risk for developing anxiety and may benefit from preemptive efforts to reduce ABT.     

Emotional reactivity to daily events in youth with anxiety disorders

Background: Although research supports associations between anxiety and emotional reactivity in adults (Cisler, J. M., Olatunji, B. O., Feldner, M. T., &; Forsyth, J. P. (2010). Emotion regulation and the anxiety disorders: an integrative review. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 32(1), 68–82.), few studies have examined emotional reactivity in anxious youth (e.g., Carthy et al., 2010; Tan, P. Z., Forbes, E. E., Dahl, R. E., Ryan, N. D., Siegle, G. J., Ladouceur, C. D., &; Silk, J. S. (2012). Emotional reactivity and regulation in anxious and nonanxious youth: a cell-phone ecological momentary assessment study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 53(2), 197–206.). Methods: Using daily diary methodology, this study examined both negative affect (NA) and positive affect (PA) reactivity to daily events in youth diagnosed with anxiety (N?=?68; 60% female; 78% non-Hispanic White; M age?=?11.18 years, SD?=?3.17). We also examined whether parent-reported emotion regulation would predict emotional reactivity. Results: Participants reported more NA on days they experienced more negative parent and teacher events and less PA on days that they experienced more negative peer events. Additionally, better emotion regulation was associated with less NA reactivity to negative teacher events and to both negative and positive academic events. Conclusions: Interpersonal events have a salient effect on daily affect for anxious youth. Youth anxiety therapists should target emotion regulation associated with negative events involving adults and address barriers to developing and maintaining positive peer relationships.     

Cognitive development in children of adolescent mothers: The impact of socioeconomic risk and maternal sensitivity

BackgroundAdolescent motherhood is accompanied by a constellation of risk factors that translate into developmental risk for the off-spring. Socioeconomic risk that is associated with adolescent motherhood as well as maternal interactive behaviors may contribute to the impact of adolescent motherhood on children’s developmental outcome.ObjectiveTherefore, the aim of the current study was to investigate differences in children’s cognitive development between children of adolescent and adult mothers in their first two years of life and to examine whether socioeconomic risk (e.g. such as educational and financial problems) and/or maternal sensitivity mediate developmental differences between children of adolescent and adult mothers.MethodsAdolescent mothers (<21 years; N = 64) and adult mothers (>25 years; N = 34) and their infants were included in the current study. Child cognitive development and maternal sensitivity were assessed at three different time points (T1: mean child age 5.26 months; T2: mean child age 14.69 months; T3: mean child age 21.16 months).ResultsChildren of adult mothers showed better cognitive performance at T3 compared to children of adolescent mothers but not at T1 and T2. A multiple mediation model including socioeconomic risk and maternal sensitivity as serial mediators demonstrated that the effect of adolescent motherhood on cognitive development was mediated in a causal effect chain with socioeconomic risk negatively affecting maternal sensitivity and maternal sensitivity affecting children’s cognitive development.DiscussionThe present findings demonstrate that maternal interactive behaviors are not only a simple predictor of cognitive development but may also act as a mediator of the association between more distal variables such as socioeconomic risk and cognitive development in adolescent mothers. This supports the need to promote prevention and intervention programs for adolescent mothers during the early postpartum period to reduce socioeconomic problems and enhance maternal interactive behaviors.     

The role of sustained attention,maternal sensitivity,and infant temperament in the development of early self-regulation

This study investigated infant predictors of early cognitive and emotional self-regulation from an intrinsic and caregiving environmental perspective. Sustained attention, reactive aspects of infant temperament, and maternal sensitivity were assessed at 10 months (n = 124) and early self-regulation (including executive functions, EF, and emotion regulation) was assessed at 18 months. The results indicated that sustained attention predicted early EF, which provide empirical support for the hierarchical framework of EF development, advocating early attention as a foundation for the development of cognitive self-regulation. Maternal sensitivity and surgency predicted emotion regulation, in that infants of sensitive mothers showed more regulatory behaviours and a longer latency to distress, whereas high levels of surgency predicted low emotion regulation, suggesting both the caregiving environment and temperament as important in the development of self-regulation. Interaction effects suggested high sustained attention to be a protective factor for children of insensitive mothers, in relation to emotion regulation. In addition, high levels of maternal sensitivity seemed to foster development of emotion regulation among children with low to medium levels of sustained attention and/or surgency. In all, our findings point to the importance of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors in infant development of self-regulation.     

Predictive Relationship Between Parental Beliefs and Accommodation of Pediatric Anxiety

Behavior performed by parents to assist a youth in avoiding or alleviating anxiety, known as accommodation, is ubiquitous among pediatric anxiety disorders and strongly related to poor treatment outcome. According to cognitive-behavioral theory, the beliefs parents hold regarding accommodation should predict parental accommodating behavior. Unfortunately, little is known about the beliefs parents hold regarding accommodation, as there exists no validated measure of this construct. First, the psychometric properties were examined for the Parental Accommodation Scale (PAS), a novel measure of parental accommodating behavior frequency (PAS-Behavior scale) and parental beliefs about accommodation (PAS-Belief scale). Second, the relationship between parental beliefs about accommodation and accommodation frequency was examined. Results provide preliminary evidence of the internal consistency and convergent validity of the PAS. Stronger positive beliefs about accommodation significantly predicted accommodation frequency, even after controlling for youth anxiety severity. Specifically, beliefs that accommodation prevents youth from losing behavioral and emotional control significantly predicted accommodation frequency. Therefore, efforts to decrease accommodation in clinical settings should involve correcting maladaptive parental beliefs about accommodation, with a particular emphasis on beliefs regarding the necessity of accommodation in preventing a youth from losing behavioral and emotional control.     

Children's Sensitivity to Cost and Reward in Decision Making across Distinct Domains of Probability,Effort, and Delay

Many behavioral paradigms used to study individuals' decision‐making tendencies do not capture the decision components that contribute to behavioral outcomes, such as differentiating decisions driven toward a reward from decisions driven away from a cost. This study tested a novel decision‐making task in a sample of 403 children (age 9 years) enrolled in an ongoing longitudinal study. The task consisted of three blocks representing distinct cost domains (delay, probability, and effort), wherein children were presented with a deck of cards, each of which consisted of a reward and a cost. Children elected whether to accept or skip the card at each trial. Reward–cost pairs were selected by using an adaptive algorithm to strategically sample the decision space in the fewest number of trials. Using person‐specific regression models, decision preferences were quantified for each cost domain with respect to general tolerance (intercept), as well as parameters estimating the effect of incremental increases in reward or cost on the probability of accepting a card. Results support the relative independence of decision‐making tendencies across cost domains, with moderate correlations observed between tolerance for delay and effort. Specific decision parameters showed unique associations with cognitive and behavioral measures including executive function, academic motivation, anxiety, and hyperactivity. Evidence indicates that sensitivity to reward is an important factor in incentivizing decisions to work harder or wait longer. Dissociating the relative contributions of reward and cost sensitivity in multiple domains may facilitate the identification of heterogeneity in suboptimal decision making. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

父母心理控制与对立违抗障碍儿童抑郁和攻击行为的关系:父子依恋和母子依恋的中介效应

采用父母心理控制、亲子依恋、抑郁量表对从北京市、山东省和云南省14所小学筛选出来的246名对立违抗障碍(Oppositional Defiant Disorder,ODD)儿童进行施测,并由被试的班主任填写儿童攻击行为量表,考察父、母心理控制对ODD儿童抑郁和攻击行为的影响,以及父子依恋和母子依恋在其中的中介作用。结果发现:(1)ODD儿童中男生人数更多,且男孩的抑郁和攻击行为更严重;(2)父亲对男孩的心理控制更强,而母亲在对男孩和女孩的心理控制上没有显著差异;(3)父、母心理控制与ODD儿童的父子依恋、母子依恋和抑郁均呈显著相关,但只有父亲心理控制与ODD儿童的攻击行为显著相关;(4)父子依恋在父母心理控制和ODD儿童抑郁之间没有起到显著的中介作用,母子依恋在母亲心理控制和ODD儿童抑郁之间有显著的中介作用。父子依恋和母子依恋在父、母心理控制和ODD儿童攻击行为之间均没有起到显著的中介作用。     

父母情绪表达与青少年问题行为:亲子依恋、孤独感的多重中介效应

本研究以西安市两所中学的211名初一学生和477名高一学生共计688名学生为被试,探讨了父母情绪表达对青少年问题行为的影响,以及亲子依恋和孤独感在父母情绪表达与青少年问题行为间的中介作用,采用《父母情绪表达问卷》、《亲密关系体验量表》、《孤独感量表》、《青少年自评量表》进行测量研究。结果表明：父母情绪表达、亲子依恋、孤独感和青少年内、外化问题两两间存在显著相关;亲子依恋与孤独感在父母情绪表达与青少年问题行为间起多重中介作用,父母情绪表达既可直接影响青少年问题行为,也可以通过不安全依恋、孤独感各自独立的中介作用和不安全依恋、孤独感的链式中介作用影响青少年问题行为。本研究揭示了父母情绪表达与青少年问题行为的关系及其作用机制,拓展了父母情绪社会化对个体心理社会适应的研究。     

Righteous or self‐righteous anger? Justice sensitivity moderates defensive outrage at a third‐party harm‐doer

While bystanders' outrage over moral transgressions may represent a genuine desire to restore justice, such expressions can also be self‐serving—alleviating guilt and bolstering one's moral status. Four studies examined whether individual differences in observer justice sensitivity (JS_O) moderate the degree to which outrage at third‐party harm‐doing reflects concerns about one's own moral identity rather than justice per se. Among participants low (vs. high) in JS_O, feelings of guilt predicted greater outrage and desire to punish a corporation's sweatshop labor practices (Studies 1 & 2). Furthermore, affirming one's personal moral identity reduced outrage and support for punishing a corporate harm‐doer among those low, but not high in JS_O (Studies 3 & 4). Similar moderation was absent for other forms of justice sensitivity and just world beliefs. Effects were not explained by negative affect, empathy, personal harm, or political orientation. Results suggest that JS_O uniquely differentiates defensive and justice‐driven moral outrage (150/150).