Interpretation Biases and Childhood Anxiety: The Moderating Role of Parasympathetic Nervous System Reactivity.

Interpretation Biases and Childhood Anxiety: The Moderating Role of Parasympathetic Nervous System Reactivity. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2019 Dec 04;: Authors: Trent ES, Viana AG, Raines EM, Woodward EC, Candelari AE, Storch EA, Zvolensky MJ Abstract This investigation examined vagal modulation of arousal, as indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), as a moderator of the covariance between interpretation biases and anxiety disorder symptom severity in a diverse sample of clinically anxious youth. A sample of 105 children with anxiety disorders (Mage = 10.07 years, SD = 1.22; range = 8-12 years; 57.1% female; 61.9% ethnic minority) and their mothers completed a battery of measures assessing interpretation biases and anxiety disorder symptom severity. Children also completed a behaviorally-indexed assessment of interpretation biases and participated in an anxiety-provoking speech task. Physiological assessment of RSA was collected at baseline (i.e., baseline RSA) and during the speech task (i.e., challenge RSA). The interaction between challenge RSA and both self-reported and behaviorally-indexed interpretation biases (adjusting for baseline RSA) was significant (ΔR2 = .05 and .04 respectively) in relation to maternal report of child anxiety symptoms. Specifically, among children with low (vs. high) challenge RSA, greater self-reported interpretation biases were significantly associated with maternal report of more sever...
Source: Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: J Abnorm Child Psychol Source Type: research