Performance-Based Interpretation Bias in Clinically Anxious Youths: Relationships With Attention, Anxiety, and Negative Cognition

• Explored relationships between performance-based interpretation biases with attention and anxiety symptoms in clinically anxious youths
• Components of interpretation (speed of responding and threat-valence judgments) examined
• Performance-based interpretation accounted for 46% of variance in anxiety symptoms
• Attention and interpretation correlated
• Preliminary support for models of information processing in anxious youths

This preliminary investigation sought to examine basic interpretive biases, as assessed via performance-based means, in the context of anxious symptomatology, attention, and negative cognition in children and adolescents. At a single assessment, 26 youths diagnosed with primary separation anxiety, social phobia, or generalized anxiety disorder completed performance-based assessments of interpretation and attention. Youths and parents also completed diagnostic interviews and youths completed a measure of negative self-statements. Components of interpretation (threat-valence judgments and speed of responding) were examined, and interpretation was explored as a correlate of youth anxiety, attention bias, and negative self-statements. Results found percentage of negative interpretations endorsed as the strongest predictor of anxiety symptoms; this index was also correlated with attention bias. Slower rejection of benign interpretations was also associated with youth-reported negative self-statements.This initial investigation provides support for a relationship between interpretation bias and anxiety and preliminary evidence for a relationship between attention and interpretation biases. Continued research dismantling the stages of basic cognition within the chain of information processing may provide a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying anxiety disorders in youths and lead to continued development and refinement of cognitive interventions.