ORCID Profile
0000-0003-1446-5338
Current Organisations
University of Reading
,
University of Exeter
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Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 10-2020
DOI: 10.1037/ABN0000623
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2022
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 02-02-2021
Abstract: Although exposure-based therapy has been found to be effective at alleviating symptoms of social anxiety disorder, it often does not lead to full remission, and relapse after treatment is common. Exposure therapy is based on theoretical principles of extinction of conditioned fear responses. However, there are inconsistencies in findings across experiments that have investigated the effect of social anxiety on threat conditioning and extinction processes. This systematic review aimed to examine whether elevated levels of social anxiety are associated with abnormalities in threat conditioning and extinction processes. A second aim was to examine the sensitivity of various study designs and characteristics to detect social anxiety-related differences in threat conditioning and extinction. A systematic search was conducted, which identified fifteen experiments for inclusion in the review. The findings did not demonstrate compelling evidence that high levels of social anxiety are associated with atypical threat conditioning or extinction. Further, there was no convincing support that the use of a particular psychophysiological measure, subjective rating, or experimental parameter yields more consistent associations between social anxiety and conditioning processes. Future work in the laboratory should examine how compromised cognitive processes and avoidance behaviours, specifically related to social anxiety, affect the renewal of social fear after extinction learning to inform approaches to exposure-based treatments for social anxiety disorder.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 12-2011
DOI: 10.5127/JEP.019211
Abstract: The role of state and trait anxiety on observer ratings of social skill and negatively biased self-perception of social skill was examined. Participants were aged between 7 and 13 years (M = 9.65 SD = 1.77 N = 102), 47 had a current anxiety diagnosis and 55 were non-anxious controls. Participants were randomly allocated to a high or low anxiety condition and asked to complete social tasks. Task instructions were adjusted across conditions to manipulate participants' state anxiety. Observers rated anxious participants as having poorer social skills than non-anxious controls but there was no evidence that anxious participants exhibited a negative self-perception bias, relative to controls. However, as participants' ratings of state anxiety increased, their perception of their performance became more negatively biased. The results suggest that anxious children may exhibit real impairments in social skill and that high levels of state anxiety can lead to biased judgements of social skills in anxious and non-anxious children.
Publisher: Research Square Platform LLC
Date: 15-10-2020
DOI: 10.21203/RS.3.RS-74855/V1
Abstract: Background There is increasing recognition of the importance of children’s play from a public health perspective given the links between play and children’s physical and mental health. The present research aimed to develop and evaluate a new parent-report questionnaire that measures the time children spend playing and how adventurously children play, across a range of places. Method The questionnaire was developed with input from a erse group of parents and experts in children’s play. It was designed to yield a range of metrics including time spent playing per year, time spent playing outside, time spent playing in nature and level of adventurous play. The reliability of the questionnaire was then evaluated with 245 parents (149 mothers, 96 fathers) of 154 children aged 5 to 11 years. All participants completed the measure at time 1. At time 2, an average of 20 days later, 184 parents (111 mothers and 73 fathers) of 99 children completed the measure again. Results Cross-informant agreement, evaluated using Concordance Correlation Coefficients (CCCs), ranged from 0.36 to 0.51. These fall in the poor to moderate range and are largely comparable to cross-informant agreement on other measures. Test-retest reliability for mothers was good (range 0.67 - 0.76) for time spent playing metrics. For fathers, test-retest reliability was lower (range 0.39 - 0.63). For both parents the average level of adventurous play variable had relatively poor test retest reliability (mothers = 0.49, fathers = 0.42). This variable also showed a significant increase from time 1 to time 2. This instability over time may be due to the timing of the research in relation to the Covid-19 lockdown and associated shifts in risk perception. Conclusions The measure will be of value in future research focusing on the public health benefits and correlates of children’s play as well as researchers interested in children’s outdoor play and play in nature specifically. The development of the measure in collaboration with parents and experts in children’s play is a significant strength. It will be of value for future research to further validate the measure against play diaries or activity monitors.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 27-07-2012
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 26-01-2023
Abstract: Adventurous play (play that is exciting and thrilling, where children take age-appropriate risks, for ex le climbing trees and jumping from rocks) is increasingly being recognised as beneficial for child health and development. Despite this, children’s opportunities for and engagement in this type of play have declined in recent decades. Breaktimes in schools may provide an ideal opportunity to provide adventurous play opportunities for all children. Recent work has identified myriad factors that help and hinder schools in offering adventurous play opportunities, but parent perspectives have largely been absent. Through one-to-one semi-structured qualitative interviews, this study aims to capture parents’ perspectives on adventurous play happening in schools and what they perceive as the key barriers to and facilitators of adventurous play in schools. The findings were analysed using reflective thematic analysis. Five themes were identified: Needs, Schools as Gatekeepers, Risks and Benefits, Societal Constraints and In idual Differences. Findings are discussed with reference to parental support for adventurous play, as well as parent and school level needs that should be addressed if barriers that may hinder adventurous play opportunities in school are to be overcome.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 20-04-2021
Abstract: The British Children’s Play Survey was conducted in April 2020 with a nationally representative s le of 1919 parents/caregivers with a child aged 5–11 years. Respondents completed a range of measures focused on children’s play, independent mobility and adult tolerance of and attitudes towards risk in play. The results show that, averaged across the year, children play for around 3 h per day, with around half of children’s play happening outdoors. Away from home, the most common places for children to play are playgrounds and green spaces. The most adventurous places for play were green spaces and indoor play centres. A significant difference was found between the age that children were reported to be allowed out alone (10.74 years SD = 2.20 years) and the age that their parents/caregivers reported they had been allowed out alone (8.91 years SD = 2.31 years). A range of socio-demographic factors were associated with children’s play. There was little evidence that geographical location predicted children’s play, but it was more important for independent mobility. Further, when parents/caregivers had more positive attitudes around children’s risk-taking in play, children spent more time playing and were allowed to be out of the house independently at a younger age.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 14-05-2022
DOI: 10.1007/S10578-022-01363-2
Abstract: It is theorised that adventurous play offers learning opportunities that help to prevent mental health problems in children. In this study, data from two s les is used to examine associations between the time that children aged 5–11 years spent playing adventurously and their mental health. For comparison, time spent playing unadventurously and time spent playing outdoors are also examined. Study 1 includes a s le of 417 parents, Study 2 includes data from a nationally representative s le of 1919 parents. Small, significant associations between adventurous play and internalising problems, as well as positive affect during the first UK-wide Covid-19 lockdown, were found children who spend more time playing adventurously had fewer internalising problems and more positive affect during the Covid-19 lockdown. Study 2 showed that these associations were stronger for children from lower income families than for children from higher income families. The results align with theoretical hypotheses about adventurous play.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2016
DOI: 10.1016/J.JAD.2015.11.032
Abstract: This research investigates the relationship between challenging parenting behaviour and childhood anxiety disorders proposed by Bögels and Phares (2008). Challenging parenting behaviour involves the playful encouragement of children to go beyond their own limits, and may decrease children's risk for anxiety (Bögels and Phares, 2008). Parents (n=164 mothers and 144 fathers) of 164 children aged between 3.4 and 4.8 years participated in the current study. A multi-method, multi-informant assessment of anxiety was used, incorporating data from diagnostic interviews as well as questionnaire measures. Parents completed self-report measures of their parenting behaviour (n=147 mothers and 138 fathers) and anxiety (n=154 mothers and 143 fathers). Mothers reported on their child's anxiety via questionnaire as well as diagnostic interview (n=156 and 164 respectively). Of these children, 74 met criteria for an anxiety disorder and 90 did not. Fathers engaged in challenging parenting behaviour more often than mothers. Both mothers' and fathers' challenging parenting behaviour was associated with lower report of child anxiety symptoms. However, only mothers' challenging parenting behaviour was found to predict child clinical anxiety diagnosis. Shared method variance from mothers confined the interpretation of these results. Moreover, due to study design, it is not possible to delineate cause and effect. The finding with respect to maternal challenging parenting behaviour was not anticipated, prompting replication of these results. Future research should investigate the role of challenging parenting behaviour by both caregivers as this may have implications for parenting interventions for anxious children.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 20-08-2015
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2017
DOI: 10.1016/J.BIOPSYCHO.2016.01.017
Abstract: Task relevance affects emotional attention in healthy in iduals. Here, we investigate whether the association between anxiety and attention bias is affected by the task relevance of emotion during an attention task. Participants completed two visual search tasks. In the emotion-irrelevant task, participants were asked to indicate whether a discrepant face in a crowd of neutral, middle-aged faces was old or young. Irrelevant to the task, target faces displayed angry, happy, or neutral expressions. In the emotion-relevant task, participants were asked to indicate whether a discrepant face in a crowd of middle-aged neutral faces was happy or angry (target faces also varied in age). Trait anxiety was not associated with attention in the emotion-relevant task. However, in the emotion-irrelevant task, trait anxiety was associated with a bias for angry over happy faces. These findings demonstrate that the task relevance of emotional information affects conclusions about the presence of an anxiety-linked attention bias.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 16-02-2022
DOI: 10.1186/S13063-022-06010-8
Abstract: Identifying and supporting young children who are at risk of developing anxiety disorders would benefit children, families, and wider society. Elevated anxiety symptoms, inhibited temperament, and high parental anxiety are established risk factors for later anxiety disorders, but it remains unclear who is most likely to benefit from prevention and early intervention programmes. Delivering an online intervention through schools to parents of young children who have one or more of these risks could maximise reach. The primary aim of this trial is to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of delivering an online parent-led intervention, compared with usual school provision only, for children (aged 4–7) identified as at risk for anxiety disorders on the basis of at least one risk factor. We also aim to identify the characteristics of children who do and do not benefit from intervention and mechanisms of change from the intervention. The design will be a parallel group, superiority cluster randomised controlled trial, with schools (clusters) randomised to intervention or usual school practice arms in a 1:1 ratio stratified according to level of deprivation within the school. The study will recruit and randomise at least 60 primary/infant schools in England, and on the basis of recruiting 60 schools, we will recruit 1080 trial participants (540 per arm). Parents of all children (aged 4–7) in s led Reception, Year 1, and Year 2 classes will be invited to complete screening questionnaires. Children who screen positive on the basis of anxiety symptoms, and/or behavioural inhibition, and/or parent anxiety symptoms will be eligible for the trial. Parents/carers of children in schools allocated to the intervention arm will be offered a brief online intervention schools in both arms will continue to provide any usual support for children and parents throughout the trial. Assessments will be completed at screening, baseline (before randomisation), 6 weeks, 12 weeks, and 12 months post-randomisation. The primary outcome will be the absence resence of an anxiety disorder diagnosis at 12 months. The trial will determine if delivering an online intervention for parents of young children at risk of anxiety disorders identified through screening in schools is effective and cost-effective. ISRCTN 82398107 . Prospectively registered on Jan. 14, 2021.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2021
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-07-2009
DOI: 10.1007/S10803-009-0806-4
Abstract: In iduals with Williams syndrome (WS) exhibit striking social behaviour that may be indicative of abnormally low social anxiety. The present research aimed to determine whether social anxiety is unusually low in WS and to replicate previous findings of increased generalised anxiety in WS using both parent and self report. Fifteen in iduals with WS aged 12-28 years completed the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS) and the Children's Automatic Thoughts Scale (CATS). Their responses were compared to clinically anxious and community comparison groups matched on mental age. The findings suggest that WS is not associated with unusually low social anxiety but that generalised anxiety symptoms and physical threat thoughts are increased in WS, relative to typically developing children.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 02-2012
DOI: 10.1037/A0024589
Abstract: A story-stem paradigm was used to assess interpretation bias in preschool children. Data were available for 131 children. Interpretation bias, behavioral inhibition (BI), and anxiety were assessed when children were aged between 3 years 2 months and 4 years 5 months. Anxiety was subsequently assessed 12 months, 2 years, and 5 years later. A significant difference in interpretation bias was found between participants who met criteria for an anxiety diagnosis at baseline, with clinically anxious participants more likely to complete the ambiguous story-stems in a threat-related way. Threat interpretations significantly predicted anxiety symptoms at 12-month follow-up, after controlling for baseline symptoms, but did not predict anxiety symptoms or diagnoses at either 2-year or 5-year follow-up. There was little evidence for a relationship between BI and interpretation bias. Overall, the pattern of results was not consistent with the hypothesis that interpretation bias plays a role in the development of anxiety. Instead, some evidence for a role in the maintenance of anxiety over relatively short periods of time was found. The use of a story-stem methodology to assess interpretation bias in young children is discussed along with the theoretical and clinical implications of the findings.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2018
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 02-01-2014
DOI: 10.1017/S0954579413000989
Abstract: The current study investigated the longitudinal relationships among behavioral inhibition (BI), life events, and anxiety in a s le of 102 BI children and 100 behaviorally uninhibited (BUI) children aged 3 to 4 years. Children's parents completed questionnaires on BI, stressful life events, and anxiety symptoms, and were administered a diagnostic interview three times in a 5-year period. In line with our hypotheses, negative life events, particularly negative behavior-dependent life events (i.e., life events that are related to the children's own behaviors), and the impact of negative life events were predictive of increases in subsequent anxiety symptoms, the likelihood of having an anxiety disorder, and increased number of anxiety diagnoses over the 5-year follow-up period. Experiencing more positive, behavior-independent life events decreased the risk of being diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Furthermore, differences were found in life events between BI and BUI children. That is, BI children experienced fewer positive and specifically positive behavior-dependent life events, and the impact of these positive life events was also lower in BI children than in BUI children. However, BI did not interact with life events in the prediction of anxiety problems as hypothesized. Therefore, this study seems to indicate that BI and life events act as additive risk factors in the development of anxiety problems.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 26-06-2019
Abstract: In iduals who score high in self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) display difficulties updating threat associations to safe associations. Here we sought to determine whether in iduals who score high in IU can learn and retain new safety associations if given more exposure. We recorded skin conductance response, pupil dilation and expectancy ratings during an associative threat learning task with acquisition, same-day extinction and next-day extinction phases. Participants (n = 144) were assigned to either a regular exposure (32 trials of same-day and next-day extinction) or extended exposure condition (48 trials of same-day and next-day extinction). We failed to replicate previous work showing that IU is associated with poorer safety-learning indexed via SCR, although the results were at trend and in the expected direction. We found preliminary evidence for promoted safety-retention in in iduals with higher Inhibitory IU in the extended exposure condition, relative to in iduals with higher Inhibitory IU in the regular exposure condition, indexed via SCR. These findings further our current understanding of the role of IU in safety-learning and -retention, informing models of IU and exposure-based treatments.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 02-10-2013
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-11-2016
DOI: 10.1007/S10439-016-1758-4
Abstract: Nerve monitoring is a safety mechanism to detect the proximity between surgical instruments and important nerves during surgical bone preparation. In temporal bone, this technique is highly specific and sensitive at distances below 0.1 mm, but remains unreliable for distances above this threshold. A deeper understanding of the patient-specific bone electric properties is required to improve this range of detection. A sheep animal model has been used to characterize bone properties in vivo. Impedance measurements have been performed at low frequencies (<1 kHz) between two electrodes placed inside holes drilled into the sheep mastoid bone. An electric circuit composed of a resistor and a Fricke constant phase element was able to accurately describe the experimental measurements. Bone resistivity was shown to be linearly dependent on the inter-electrode distance and the local bone density. Based on this model, the amount of bone material between the electrodes could be predicted with an error of 0.7 mm. Our results indicate that bone could be described as an ideal resistor while the electrochemical processes at the electrode-tissue interface are characterized by a constant phase element. These results should help increasing the safety of surgical drilling procedures by better predicting the distance to critical nerve structures.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2014
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-04-2023
DOI: 10.1002/JCV2.12163
Abstract: The COVID‐19 pandemic caused significant disruption to the lives of children and their families. Pre‐school children may have been particularly vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic, with the closure of childcare facilities, playgrounds, playcentres and parent and toddler groups limiting their opportunities for social interaction at a crucial stage of development. Additionally, for parents working from home, caring for pre‐school aged children who require high levels of support and care, was likely challenging. We conducted an intensive longitudinal, but not nationally representative, study to examine trajectories of pre‐schoolers’ mental symptoms in the United Kingdom during the first year of the COVID‐19 pandemic. UK‐based parents and carers ( n = 1520) of pre‐school‐aged children (2–4 years) completed monthly online surveys about their pre‐schoolers’ mental health between April 2020 and March 2021. The survey examined changes in children's emotional symptoms, conduct problems and hyperactivity/inattention. In our final mixed‐effects models, our predictors (fixed effects) accounted for 5% of the variance in each of conduct problems, emotional symptoms and hyperactivity/inattention symptoms scores, and the combined random and fixed effects accounted for between 64% and 73% of the variance. Pre‐schoolers’ emotional problems and hyperactivity/inattention symptoms declined from April through summer 2020 and then increased again during the autumn and winter 2020/2021 as lockdowns were re‐introduced. Pre‐schoolers who attended childcare showed greater decline in symptom severity than those who did not. Older children, compared to younger, showed greater lability of emotion symptom severity. Attending childcare predicted lower symptom severity across all three domains of conduct problems, emotional symptoms, and hyperactivity/inattention, while the opposite pattern was observed for children whose parent had a mental health problem. Our findings reinforce the importance of examining pre‐schoolers’ mental health in the context of micro and macro‐level factors. Interventions focussing on family factors such as parent mental health, as well as continued provision of childcare, may have most potential to mitigate the impact of COVID‐19 on young children's mental health.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 19-01-2021
DOI: 10.1007/S10567-020-00338-W
Abstract: In this conceptual article, we draw upon the literature regarding cognitive and behavioural factors that underpin childhood anxiety to outline how a range of these risk markers might be targeted through adventurous play. When children play in an adventurous way, climbing trees, riding their bikes fast downhill and jumping from rocks, they experience feelings of fear and excitement, thrill and adrenaline. We propose that the positive, thrilling and playful emotions associated with this type of child-led play facilitate exposure to fear-provoking situations and, in doing so, provide opportunities for children to learn about physiological arousal, uncertainty and coping. We hypothesise that these learning opportunities will, over time, reduce children’s risk for elevated anxiety by increasing children’s expectations and ability to cope with anxiety, decreasing intolerance of uncertainty and preventing catastrophic misinterpretations of physiological arousal. If our conceptual model is correct, then ensuring that children have the physical and psychological space required to play in an adventurous way may help to decrease their risk for elevated or clinical anxiety.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 08-08-2012
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 07-08-2021
Abstract: Adventurous play, defined as exciting, thrilling play where children are able to take age-appropriate risks, has been associated with a wide range of positive outcomes. Despite this, it remains unclear what factors might aid or hinder schools in offering adventurous play opportunities. The purpose of this systematic review is to synthesise findings from qualitative studies on the perceived barriers and facilitators of adventurous play in schools. A total of nine studies were included in the final synthesis. The review used two synthesis strategies: a meta-aggregative synthesis and narrative synthesis. Findings were similar across the two syntheses, highlighting that key barriers and facilitators were: adults’ perceptions of children adults’ attitudes and beliefs about adventurous play and concerns pertaining to health and safety, and concerns about legislation. Based on the findings of the review, recommendations for policy and practice are provided to support adventurous play in schools.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2018
DOI: 10.1016/J.JAD.2017.07.035
Abstract: Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) has been implicated in the development and maintenance of worry and anxiety in adults and there is an increasing interest in the role that IU may play in anxiety and worry in children and adolescents. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to summarize existing research on IU with regard to anxiety and worry in young people, and to provide a context for considering future directions in this area of research. The systematic review yielded 31 studies that investigated the association of IU with either anxiety or worry in children and adolescents. The meta-analysis showed that IU accounted for 36.00% of the variance in anxiety and 39.69% in worry. Due to the low number of studies and methodological factors, examination of potential moderators was limited and of those we were able to examine, none were significant moderators of either association. Most studies relied on questionnaire measures of IU, anxiety, and worry all studies except one were cross-sectional and the majority of the studies were with community s les. The inclusion of eligible studies was limited to studies published in English that focus on typically developing children. There is a strong association between IU and both anxiety and worry in young people therefore IU may be a relevant construct to target in treatment. To extend the existing literature, future research should incorporate longitudinal and experimental designs, and include s les of young people who have a range of anxiety disorders.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 25-07-2022
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Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 11-2010
DOI: 10.1080/13546801003737157
Abstract: Observations of behaviour and research using eyetracking technology have shown that in iduals with Williams syndrome (WS) pay an unusual amount of attention to other people's faces. The present research examines whether this attention to faces is moderated by the valence of emotional expression. Sixteen participants with WS aged between 13 and 29 years (mean = 19 years 9 months) completed a dot-probe task in which pairs of faces displaying happy, angry, and neutral expressions were presented. The performance of the WS group was compared to two groups of typically developing control participants, in idually matched to the participants in the WS group on either chronological age or mental age. General mental age was assessed in the WS group using the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Cognitive Ability-Revised (WJ-COG-R Woodcock & Johnson, 1989/1990). Compared to both control groups, the WS group exhibited a greater attention bias for happy faces. In contrast, no between-group differences in bias for angry faces were obtained. The results are discussed in relation to recent neuroimaging findings and the hypersocial behaviour that is characteristic of the WS population.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2020
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 18-06-2008
DOI: 10.1080/09297040802577881
Abstract: The aim of this study was to explore psychopathological and behavior impairments in Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) by focusing on in idual differences rather than group tendencies. Parent/Guardian ratings on the Child Behavior Checklist were analyzed in order to examine the influence of gender, chronological age, and cognitive abilities on psychopathological impairment within WBS. In line with predictions, and consistent with cognitive heterogeneity in WBS, psychopathological and behavioral abnormalities were variable, with gender and specific cognitive abilities making significant and independent contributions to this variance. For gender, females were significantly more likely than males with WBS to display difficulties with externalizing problems. For specific cognitive abilities, those cognitive functions characteristic of the classic WBS cognitive profile (a strength in verbal skills and a weakness in spatial skills) related to significantly greater internalizing difficulties. Future studies should explore underlying genetic and neurological differences in in iduals with WBS in order to help explain the variability in psychopathological and cognitive functions.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2020
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2021
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-2022
DOI: 10.1186/S12889-022-13019-W
Abstract: From a public health perspective there is growing interest in children’s play, including play involving risk and adventure, in relation to children’s physical and mental health. Regarding mental health, it is theorised that adventurous play, where children experience thrilling, exciting emotions, offers important learning opportunities that prepare children for dealing with uncertainty and help prevent anxiety. Despite these benefits, adventurous play has decreased substantially within a generation. Parents have a key role in facilitating or limiting children’s opportunities for adventurous play, but research identifying the barriers and facilitators parents perceive in relation to adventurous play is scarce. The present study therefore examined the barriers to and facilitators of adventurous play as perceived by parents of school-aged children in Britain. This study analysed data from a subs le of parents in Britain ( n = 377) who participated in the nationally representative British Children’s Play Survey. Parents responded to two open-ended questions pertaining to the barriers to and facilitators of children’s adventurous play. Responses were analysed using a qualitative Framework Analysis, an approach suitable for managing large datasets with specific research questions. Four framework categories were identified: Social Environment Physical Environment Risk of Injury Child Factors. Social Environment included barriers and facilitators related to parents, family and peers, as well as community and society. Dominant themes within the Social Environment related to perceptions about the certainty of child safety, such as supervision and the safety of society. Beliefs about the benefits of adventurous play for development and well-being were also important in the Social Environment. Physical Environment factors focused on safety and practical issues. Risk of Injury captured concerns about children being injured during play. Child Factors included child attributes, such as play preference, developmental ability and trait-like characteristics. Improved understanding of what influences parent perceptions of adventurous play can inform public health interventions designed to improve children’s opportunities for and engagement in adventurous play, with a view to promote children’s physical and mental health.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 08-10-2020
Abstract: This study examined the effect of anonymous computer mediated communication (CMC) on state anxiety, specifically focusing on whether the valence of the interaction affected state anxiety prior to completing an anxiety-inducing task. To investigate this, 62 female participants aged 18-25 were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: positive CMC, negative CMC and writing a blog. Self-report measures of state anxiety were taken at: baseline after participants had been given instructions about the anxiety-inducing task after ten minutes of CMC/blog writing and after the anxiety-inducing task had been completed. Results showed that participants in the positive CMC condition showed a significant and moderate decrease in anxiety following the CMC whereas those in the negative CMC condition showed a non-significant but moderate increase in anxiety following the CMC. Anxiety remained relatively unaffected by the blog condition. After completing the anxiety-inducing task there were no differences in anxiety scores between groups. The findings show that CMC can be beneficial for relieving state anxiety but that the valence of the communication is crucial. This has implications for advice and training given to those participating in and supporting CMC where mental health issues might be discussed.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 31-03-2023
DOI: 10.1002/JCV2.12139
Abstract: The threats to health, associated restrictions and economic consequences of the COVID‐19 pandemic have been linked to increases in mental health difficulties for many. Parents, in particular, have experienced many challenges such as having to combine work with home‐schooling their children and other caring responsibilities. Yet, it remains unclear how parental mental health has changed throughout the pandemic or what factors may have mitigated or compounded the impact of the pandemic on parents' mental health. We examined monthly survey data from two linked UK‐based longitudinal studies: COVID‐19: Supporting Parents, Adolescents and Children during Epidemics' (Co‐SPACE) and COVID‐19: Supporting Parents and Young Children during Epidemics' (Co‐SPYCE). Data from 5576 parents/carers of 2–17‐year‐old children collected between April 2020 and January 2021 was analysed using mixed‐effect modelling and latent class growth (mixture) modelling. Parental stress and depression, but not anxiety, were higher during the periods of restrictions. This pattern was most pronounced for parents with primary‐school‐aged children, those that worked at home or had other adults in the household. Being younger, reporting secondary or below education, working out of home, having secondary‐school‐aged children or children with special education needs (SEN)/neurodevelopmental disorders (ND) further moderated whether, how and when parental mental health symptoms changed. Although around three quarters of parents reported consistently low mental health symptoms, a substantial minority reported consistently high or increasing symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression. The latter were more likely to be parents who were younger than average, were a single adult in the household, had a pre‐existing mental health diagnosis or had a child with special educational needs or a ND. These findings emphasise how different personal circumstances and pre‐existing inequalities shaped how parents were affected by this unprecedented global pandemic and highlight the need for support and consideration to meet the needs of families in the future.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 17-12-0002
DOI: 10.3390/BS10120194
Abstract: (1) Background: There is evidence of an attention bias–anxiety relationship in children, but lack of appropriate methods has limited the number of studies with children younger than eight years old. This study used eye tracking as a measure of overt attention in young children. The aim of this study was to assess anxiety-related attention bias in children aged four to eight years. Age was considered a moderator, and the influence of effortful control was investigated. (2) Method: A community s le of 104 children was shown pairs of happy–neutral and angry–neutral faces. Growth curve analyses were used to examine patterns of gaze over time. (3) Results: Analyses revealed moderation by age and anxiety, with distinct patterns of anxiety-related biases seen in different age groups in the angry–neutral face trials. Effortful control did not account for age-related effects. (4) Conclusions: The results support a moderation model of the development of anxiety in children.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 14-04-2009
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 20-10-2017
DOI: 10.1080/15374416.2017.1381915
Abstract: Challenging parenting behavior (CPB), a novel construct involving active physical and verbal behaviors that encourage children to push their limits, has been identified as a potential buffer against child anxiety. This study aimed to (a) evaluate the measurement invariance of the Challenging Parenting Behavior Questionnaire (CPBQ4-6) across Dutch and Australian mothers and fathers of preschoolers, (b) examine differences in levels of CPB across mothers and fathers and across countries, and (c) examine whether parents' CPB predicts less child anxiety symptoms and disorders. Participants were 312 families-146 Dutch and 166 Australian-with their 3- to 4-year-old child (55.8% girls). Fathers' and mothers' CPB was measured using the CPBQ4-6, and child anxiety symptoms and presence of anxiety disorders were assessed using maternal reports. Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses revealed equivalence of factor structure and factor loadings (all significant) of the CPBQ4-6 across mothers and fathers and across countries. Evidence of partial scalar invariance indicated that the groups differed on some subscales of the CPBQ4-6. Australian mothers scored lower on the CPB factor than Australian fathers and Dutch parents. Structural equation models showed that CPB predicted fewer child anxiety symptoms and anxiety disorders for all groups. The study confirms that the CPBQ4-6 is appropriate for use with Dutch and Australian parents of preschool-age children and identifies CPB as a multifaceted and coherent construct. The negative relations between CPB and child anxiety suggest that CPB has a protective role in childhood anxiety and is important to examine in future research and interventions.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2020
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 26-04-2015
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 21-07-2022
Abstract: BackgroundThe threats to health, associated restrictions and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have been linked to increases in mental health difficulties for many. Parents, in particular, have experienced many challenges such as having to combine work with home-schooling their children and other caring responsibilities. Yet, it remains unclear how parental mental health has changed throughout the pandemic or what factors may have mitigated or compounded the impact of the pandemic on parents' mental health.MethodsWe examined monthly survey data from two linked UK-based longitudinal studies: COVID-19: Supporting Parents, Adolescents and Children during Epidemics' (Co-SPACE) and COVID-19: Supporting Parents and Young Children during Epidemics' (Co-SPYCE). Data from 5576 parents/carers of 2–17-year-old children collected between April 2020 and January 2021 was analysed using mixed-effect modelling and latent class growth (mixture) modelling.ResultsParental stress and depression, but not anxiety, were higher during the periods of restrictions. This pattern was most pronounced for parents with primary-school-aged children, those that worked at home or had other adults in the household. Being younger, reporting secondary or below education, working out of home, having secondary-school-aged children or children with special education needs (SEN)/neurodevelopmental disorders (ND) further moderated whether, how and when parental mental health symptoms changed. Although around three quarters of parents reported consistently low mental health symptoms, a substantial minority reported consistently high or increasing symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression. The latter were more likely to be parents who were younger than average, were a single adult in the household, had a pre-existing mental health diagnosis or had a child with special educational needs or a ND.ConclusionsThese findings emphasise how different personal circumstances and pre-existing inequalities shaped how parents were affected by this unprecedented global pandemic and highlight the need for support and consideration to meet the needs of families in the future.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-05-2017
DOI: 10.1007/S10826-017-0735-3
Abstract: Verbal information transfer, one of Rachman’s three pathways to fear, may be one way in which vulnerability for anxiety may be transmitted from parents to children. A community s le of mothers and their preschool-aged children ( N = 65) completed observational tasks relating to the child starting school. Mothers were asked to tell their child about social aspects of school then children completed a brief play assessment involving ambiguous, school-based social scenarios. Mothers completed self-report questionnaires on social anxiety symptoms, general anxiety and depressive symptoms as well as a questionnaire on child anxiety symptoms and indicated whether they were personally worried about their child starting school. There was a significant difference in the information given to children about school between mothers who stated they were worried and those who stated they were not, with mothers who were worried more likely to mention unresolved threat, use at least one anxiety-related word, and show clear/consistent negativity (all p s .01). Significant associations were also found between the emotional tone of mothers’ descriptions of school and children’s own representations of school. These findings support the theory that the information mothers give to their child may be influenced by their own concerns regarding their child, and that this verbal information affects child representations.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 10-11-2020
DOI: 10.20944/PREPRINTS202011.0319.V1
Abstract: (1) Background: There is robust evidence of an attention bias-anxiety relationship in children, but lack of appropriate methods has limited the number of studies with children younger than 8 years old. This study used eye-tracking as a measure of overt attention in young children. The aim of this study was to assess anxiety related attention bias in children aged 4 to 8 years. Age was considered as a moderator and the influence of effortful control was investigated. (2) Method: A community s le of 104 children were shown pairs of happy-neutral and angry-neutral faces. Growth curve analyses were used to examine patterns of gaze over time. (3) Results: Analyses revealed moderation by age and anxiety, with distinct patterns of anxiety-related biases seen in different age groups in the angry-neutral face trials. Effortful control did not account for age related effects. (4) Conclusions: Results support a moderation model of the development of anxiety in children.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 21-06-2021
Publisher: University of California Press
Date: 2023
Abstract: Previous research has demonstrated that in iduals with high levels of Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) have difficulty updating threat associations to safety associations. Notably, prior research has focused on measuring IU-related differences in threat and safety learning using arousal-based measures such as skin conductance response. Here we assessed whether IU-related differences in threat and safety learning could be captured using eye-tracking metrics linked with gaze behaviours such as dwelling and scanning. Participants (N = 144) completed self-report questionnaires assessing levels of IU and trait anxiety. Eye movements were then recorded during each conditioning phase: acquisition, extinction learning, and extinction retention. Fixation count and fixation duration served as indices of conditioned responding. Patterns of threat and safety learning typically reported for physiology and self-report were observed for the fixation count and fixation duration metrics during acquisition and to some extent in extinction learning, but not for extinction retention. There was little evidence for specific associations between IU and disrupted safety learning (e.g., greater differential responses to the threat vs. safe cues during extinction learning and retention). While there was tentative evidence that IU was associated with shorter fixation durations (e.g., scanning) to threat vs. safe cues during extinction retention, this effect did not remain after controlling for trait anxiety. IU and trait anxiety similarly predicted greater fixation count and shorter fixation durations overall during extinction learning, and greater fixation count overall during extinction retention. IU further predicted shorter fixation durations overall during extinction retention. However, the only IU-based effect that remained significant after controlling for trait anxiety was that of fixation duration overall during threat extinction learning. Our results inform models of anxiety, particularly in relation to how in idual differences modulate gaze behaviour during threat conditioning.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 17-02-2016
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.BRAT.2019.103450
Abstract: There is convincing evidence that anxious children and adolescents are biased to interpret ambiguity in a negative way (Stuijfzand, Creswell, Field, Pearcey, & Dodd, 2017). However, little research examines interpretation bias in children under eight years. This is due to existing measures of interpretation bias being inappropriate for young children. Consequently, we aimed to develop a new interpretation bias task for young children using tones. Children learnt to associate high tones with a 'happy alien' and low tones with an 'angry alien'. They were then asked to classify tones from the middle of the frequency range (ambiguous tones) as 'happy' or 'angry'. Corrugator muscle activity was recorded alongside behavioural responses. A community s le of 110 children aged 4-8 years, split into high and low anxious groups, completed the task. High anxious children were more likely to interpret the ambiguous tones as negative but this effect was small and only apparent after controlling for developmental factors. Corrugator activity aligned with behavioural responses for trained but not ambiguous tones. This is the first study to assess interpretation bias in young children using behavioural and physiological measures. Results indicate the task is developmentally appropriate and has potential utility for future research.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-02-2010
DOI: 10.1111/J.1365-2788.2009.01241.X
Abstract: Indiscriminate social approach behaviour is a salient aspect of the Williams syndrome (WS) behavioural phenotype. The present study examines approach behaviour in pre-schoolers with WS and evaluates the role of the face in WS social approach behaviour. Ten pre-schoolers with WS (aged 3-6 years) and two groups of typically developing children, matched to the WS group on chronological or mental age, participated in an observed play session. The play session incorporated social and non-social components including two components that assessed approach behaviour towards strangers one in which the stranger's face could be seen and one in which the stranger's face was covered. In response to the non-social aspects of the play session, the WS group behaved similarly to both control groups. In contrast, the pre-schoolers with WS were significantly more willing than either control group to engage with a stranger, even when the stranger's face could not be seen. The findings challenge the hypothesis that an unusual attraction to the face directly motivates social approach behaviour in in iduals with WS.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-10-2018
DOI: 10.1111/JCPP.12822
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-08-2011
DOI: 10.1007/S10803-010-1048-1
Abstract: Williams syndrome (WS) is associated with an unusual profile of anxiety, characterised by increased rates of non-social anxiety but not social anxiety (Dodd and Porter, J Ment Health Res Intellect Disabil 2(2):89-109, 2009). The present research examines whether this profile of anxiety is associated with an interpretation bias for ambiguous physical, but not social, situations. Sixteen participants with WS, aged 13-34 years, and two groups of typically developing controls matched to the WS group on chronological age (CA) and mental age (MA), participated. Consistent with the profile of anxiety reported in WS, the WS group were significantly more likely to interpret an ambiguous physical situation as threatening than both control groups. However, no between-group differences were found on the ambiguous social situations.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 19-12-2018
DOI: 10.1007/S10802-018-0495-6
Abstract: This longitudinal study examined a multitude of early childhood predictors of anxiety symptoms and disorders over an 8-year period. The purpose of the study was to identify early life predictors of anxiety across childhood and early adolescence in a s le of at-risk children. The s le included 202 preschool children initially identified as behaviorally inhibited or uninhibited between the ages of 3 years 2 months and 4 years 5 months. Temperament and familial environment variables were assessed using observation and parent report at baseline. Anxiety symptoms and disorders were assessed using questionnaires and diagnostic interviews at baseline (age 4), and at age 6, 9 and 12 years. In line with our hypotheses, the findings showed that preschool children were more likely to experience anxiety symptoms and disorders over time i) when the child was inhibited, ii) when there was a history of maternal anxiety disorders or iii) when mothers displayed high levels of overinvolvement. Further, the study identified a significant interaction effect between temperament and maternal overvinvolvement such that behaviorally inhibited preschoolers had higher anxiety symptoms at age 12, only in the presence of maternal overinvolvement at age 4. The increased risk of anxiety in inhibited children was mitigated when mothers demonstrated low levels of overinvolvement at age 4. This study provides evidence of both additive and interactive effects of temperament and family environment on the development of anxiety and provides important information for the identification of families who will most likely benefit from targeted early intervention.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-02-2015
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-08-2020
DOI: 10.1111/JCPP.13310
Abstract: Childhood Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is common and impairing. The recommended treatment is a disorder specific form of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) that includes social skills training and, whilst they appear to be more effective than more general treatments, it is not clear whether social skills training is the critical component involved in improved outcomes, particularly given that evidence for the relationship between social anxiety and social skills deficits in children is inconsistent. This may be partly due to an overlap in their observable features, and because the nature of the association may vary in different contexts (e.g. according to child age). An alternative approach is to examine the association between social anxiety and the social cognitive capacities that underpin social skills. This paper aims to examine the association between social anxiety and social cognition in children and adolescents, and examine conceptual and methodological moderators of this relationship. Papers published between 1980 and 2019 were screened systematically. Fifty studies were identified from which an effect size could be calculated for the relationship between social anxiety and social cognition, including 15,411 children and adolescents. An overall significant, but moderate effect ( r = −.15) was identified, where increased social anxiety was associated with lower social cognitive ability. Moderation analyses revealed specific associations within studies examining social anxiety among participants with and without ASD who were older than 7 years old, and studies assessing the relationship between social anxiety and specific aspects of Theory of Mind (ToM). No significant association was identified between social anxiety and emotion recognition. Significant associations between social anxiety and social cognitive abilities appear to be accounted for by elevated social anxiety among children with ASD, and those with difficulties in specific aspects of ToM but not broader social skills, such as emotion recognition. This reinforces the importance of accurately identifying and treating social anxiety within ASD populations. In addition, treatments for social anxiety among neurotypical populations may benefit from targeting particular aspects of ToM rather than emotion recognition and other broad social skills.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 02-02-2021
Abstract: Excessive avoidance and safety behaviours are a hallmark feature of social anxiety disorder. However, the conditioning and extinction of avoidance behaviour in social anxiety is understudied. Here, we examined the effect of in idual differences in social anxiety on low-cost operant avoidance conditioning and extinction in 80 female participants. We employed an avoidance conditioning and extinction paradigm and measured skin conductance response, threat expectancy ratings and avoidance behaviour throughout the task. Findings demonstrated that elevated levels of social anxiety predicted the generalisation of conditioned avoidance responses across to safety cues during avoidance conditioning. When the opportunity to avoid was returned after extinction learning, elevated social anxiety was associated with increased avoidance behaviour to both threat and safety cues. The results suggest that compromised extinction of avoidance behaviour is a characteristic of social anxiety and supports the strategy of minimising avoidance and safety behaviours during exposure therapy for the treatment of social anxiety disorder. Future research should utilise the avoidance conditioning and extinction paradigm as a laboratory model for clinical research to investigate how, and under what circumstances, the extinction of avoidance and safety behaviours can be improved for in iduals high in social anxiety.
Publisher: No publisher found
Date: 2017
DOI: 10.1016/J.JANXDIS.2017.05.008
Abstract: This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Social Worries Anxiety Index for Young children (SWAIY), adapted from the Social Worries Questionnaire-Parent version (SWQ-P Spence, 1995), as a measure of social anxiety in young children. 169 parents of children aged four to eight years from a community s le completed the SWAIY and a standardized measure of anxiety the SWAIY was completed again two weeks later. Parents deemed the items appropriate and relevant to children of this age. The SWAIY demonstrated excellent (>0.80) internal consistency and a one-factor model. Test-retest reliability was strong (r=0.87) and evidence of convergent validity (r>.50) was found. The study provides initial evidence for the validation of SWAIY as a measure of social anxiety in children aged four to eight years old. This questionnaire is ideal for investigating social anxiety over early childhood and the relationship between early social worries and later anxiety disorders.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 12-01-2020
Abstract: Difficulty updating threat associations to safe associations has been observed in in iduals who score high in self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU). Here we sought to determine whether an instruction based on fundamental principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) could promote safety learning in in iduals with higher levels of IU, whilst controlling for self-reported trait anxiety (STICSA). We measured skin conductance response (SCR), pupil dilation and expectancy ratings during an associative threat learning task in which participants either received a cognitive behavioural instruction (CB) or no instruction prior to threat extinction (n = 92). Analyses revealed that both self-reported IU and STICSA similarly predicted differences in SCR. Only in iduals with lower IU/STICSA in the CB instruction condition displayed successful safety learning via SCR. These initial results provide some insight into how simple CB instructions combined with exposure are applied differently in in iduals with varying levels of self-reported anxiety. Conclusions. The results further our understanding of the role of basic CBT principles and self-reported anxiety in safety learning.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2016
DOI: 10.1016/J.BRAT.2016.08.009
Abstract: This study investigated whether close friends affect each other's fear responses (fear beliefs and avoidance) when they discuss fear-related issues together. Children (N = 242) aged 7-10 years were first presented with ambiguous and threatening information about two novel animals respectively, after which their fear responses towards each animal were assessed (T1). Next, dyads of close friends had a discussion about their feelings regarding the animals, and their fear responses were measured again (T2). Results showed that children influenced each other's cognitions following the discussion from T1 to T2 their fear responses became more similar and close friends' fear responses at T1 significantly predicted children's fear responses at T2. Gender pair type predicted change in children's fear responses over time. Children in boy-boy pairs showed a significant increase in fear responses following the discussion their fear level became more in line with that of other gender pairs at T2, while those in girl-girl pairs showed a significant decrease in their fear beliefs, at least when threatening information was given. Differences in anxiety level between close friends did not affect change in fear responses over time. Altogether, the results indicate that children may affect each other's fears.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 31-01-2011
DOI: 10.1080/87565641.2010.549872
Abstract: This longitudinal study assessed cognition in Williams syndrome (WS) over a 5 year period using the same test battery over the two occasions of testing. The aim was to explore whether absolute levels of ability and relative cognitive strengths and weaknesses remain consistent over time. 27 participants with WS were assessed using the Woodcock Johnson Test of Cognitive Ability--Revised (WJ-R COG, Woodcock & Johnson, 1989, 1990). Results suggested some developmental progress over time, but at a slower rate than typically developing peers. Cognitive strengths and weaknesses were consistent, at least on those abilities assessed using the WJ-R COG.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-05-2021
DOI: 10.1186/S12889-021-10812-X
Abstract: There is increasing recognition of the importance of children’s play from a public health perspective, given the links between play and children’s physical and mental health. The present research aimed to develop and evaluate a new parent-report questionnaire that measures the time children spend playing across a range of places and includes a supplement to evaluate how adventurously children play. The questionnaire was developed with input from a erse group of parents and experts in children’s play. It was designed to yield a range of metrics including time spent playing per year, time spent playing outside, time spent playing in nature and level of adventurous play. The reliability of the questionnaire was then evaluated with 245 parents (149 mothers, 96 fathers) of 154 children aged 5–11 years. All participants completed the measure at time 1. At time 2, an average of 20 days later, 184 parents (111 mothers and 73 fathers) of 99 children completed the measure again. Cross-informant agreement, evaluated using Concordance Correlation Coefficients (CCCs), ranged from 0.36 to 0.51. These fall in the poor to moderate range and are largely comparable to cross-informant agreement on other measures. Test-retest reliability for mothers was good (range 0.67–0.76) for time spent playing metrics. For fathers, test-retest reliability was lower (range 0.39–0.63). For both parents the average level of adventurous play variable had relatively poor test retest reliability (mothers = 0.49, fathers = 0.42). This variable also showed a significant increase from time 1 to time 2. This instability over time may be due to the timing of the research in relation to the Covid-19 lockdown and associated shifts in risk perception. The measure will be of value in future research focusing on the public health benefits and correlates of children’s play as well as researchers interested in children’s outdoor play and play in nature specifically. The development of the measure in collaboration with parents and experts in children’s play is a significant strength. It will be of value for future research to further validate the measure against play diaries or activity monitors.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 19-11-2019
Abstract: In iduals who score high in Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) have a tendency to find uncertainty and the unknown aversive. However, there is a dearth of literature on the extent to which the known vs. the unknown during threatening contexts induce fear and anxiety in in iduals with high IU. In the following registered report we attempted to address this question by manipulating the known and unknown in the threat of predictable and unpredictable aversive events task. Throughout the task, we measured a variety of self-report (ratings of valence and arousal) and physiological indices (skin conductance, pupil dilation, orbicularis oculi, corrugator supercilli). We collected data from 93 participants. Higher IU, relative to lower IU was associated with: (1) less discriminatory orbicularis oculi activity between cue and interstimulus interval periods across conditions, and (2) larger corrugator supercilii activity to the known predictable shock condition and smaller corrugator supercilii activity to the known unpredictable shock condition, compared to the other conditions. These findings provide evidence that IU-related biases manifest differently depending on the physiological marker of fear and anxiety and the type of known-unknown threat i.e. orbicularis oculi activity was related to generalisation across conditions, whilst corrugator supercilli activity reflected distress/relief during conditions with known threat. Ultimately, this research will inform future models of IU in relation to anxiety and stress disorders.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 02-12-2014
DOI: 10.1007/S10802-014-9962-X
Abstract: Extensive research has examined attentional bias for threat in anxious adults and school-aged children but it is unclear when this anxiety-related bias is first established. This study uses eyetracking technology to assess attentional bias in a s le of 83 children aged 3 or 4 years. Of these, 37 (19 female) met criteria for an anxiety disorder and 46 (30 female) did not. Gaze was recorded during a free-viewing task with angry-neutral face pairs presented for 1250 ms. There was no indication of between-group differences in threat bias, with both anxious and non-anxious groups showing vigilance for angry faces as well as longer dwell times to angry over neutral faces. Importantly, however, the anxious participants spent significantly less time looking at the faces overall, when compared to the non-anxious group. The results suggest that both anxious and non-anxious preschool-aged children preferentially attend to threat but that anxious children may be more avoidant of faces than non-anxious children.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 12-10-2022
Abstract: In iduals high in self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) tend to view uncertainty as unbearable and stressful. Notably, IU is transdiagnostic, and high levels of IU are observed across many different emotional disorders (e.g. anxiety, depression). Research has primarily focused on how IU evokes and modulates emotional states such as fear and anxiety. However, recent research suggests that IU may have relevance for a broader range of emotional states. Here, an online survey was conducted (n = 231) to examine whether IU evokes and modulates a range of negative (e.g. fear/anxiety, sadness/upset, anger/frustration, disgust) and positive (e.g. happiness/joy, excitement/enthusiasm, surprise/interest) emotional states. Findings from the study revealed that in iduals with higher levels of IU report: (1) that uncertainty in general and uncertainty under ambiguity are more likely to evoke negative emotional states and less likely to evoke positive emotional states, (2) that uncertainty under risk is less likely to evoke positive emotional states, and (3) that uncertainty heightens existing negative emotional states and d ens existing positive emotional states. Importantly, these IU-related findings remained when controlling for current experiences of general distress, anxious arousal, and anhedonic depression. Taken together, these findings suggest that IU is involved in evoking and modulating a wide array of emotional phenomena, which likely has relevance for transdiagnostic models and treatment plans for emotional disorders.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2021
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2018
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 30-03-2020
Abstract: In iduals who score high in Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) display reduced threat extinction. Recently, it was shown that replacing threat associations with novel associations during extinction learning (i.e. presenting a novel tone 100% of the time) can promote threat extinction retention in in iduals with high IU. This novelty facilitated extinction (NFE) effect could be driven by the tone’s novelty or reliability. Here we sought to address this question by adjusting the reliability of the novel tone (i.e., the reinforcement rate) during NFE. We measured skin conductance response during an associative learning task in which participants (n = 92) were assigned to one of three experimental groups: standard extinction, NFE 100% reinforcement or NFE 50% reinforcement. For standard extinction, compared to NFE 100% and 50% reinforcement groups, we observed a trend for greater recovery of the conditioned response during extinction retention. In iduals with high IU relative to low IU in the standard extinction group demonstrated a larger recovery of the conditioned response during extinction retention. These findings tentatively suggest that NFE effects are driven by the novelty rather than the reliability of the new stimulus. The implications of these findings for translational and clinical research in anxiety disorder pathology are discussed.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 26-08-2022
Abstract: Previous research has demonstrated that in iduals with high levels of Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) have difficulty updating threat associations to safety associations. Notably, prior research has focused on measuring IU-related differences in threat and safety learning using arousal-based measures such as skin conductance response. Here we assessed whether IU-related differences in threat and safety learning could be captured using eye-tracking metrics linked with gaze behaviours such as dwelling and scanning. Participants (N = 144) completed self-report questionnaires assessing levels of IU and trait anxiety. Eye movements were then recorded during each conditioning phase: acquisition, extinction learning, and extinction retention. Fixation count and fixation duration served as indices of conditioned responding. Patterns of threat and safety learning typically reported for physiology and self-report were observed for the fixation count and fixation duration metrics during acquisition and to some extent in extinction learning, but not for extinction retention. There was little evidence for specific associations between IU and disrupted safety learning (e.g., greater differential responses to the threat vs. safe cues during extinction learning and retention). While there was tentative evidence that IU was associated with shorter fixation durations (e.g., scanning) to threat vs. safe cues during extinction retention, this effect did not remain after controlling for trait anxiety. IU and trait anxiety similarly predicted greater fixation count and shorter fixation durations overall during extinction learning, and greater fixation count overall during extinction retention. IU further predicted shorter fixation durations overall during extinction retention. However, the only IU-based effect that remained significant after controlling for trait anxiety was that of fixation duration overall during threat extinction learning. Our results inform models of anxiety, particularly in relation to how in idual differences modulate gaze behaviour during threat conditioning.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 26-08-2020
Abstract: In this conceptual article we draw upon the literature regarding cognitive and behavioural factors that underpin childhood anxiety to outline how a range of these risk markers might be targeted through adventurous play. When children play in an adventurous way, climbing trees, riding their bikes fast downhill, jumping from rocks, they experience feelings of fear and excitement, thrill and adrenaline. We propose that the positive, thrilling, playful emotions associated with this type of child-led play facilitates exposure to fear-provoking situations and, in doing so, provides opportunities for children to learn about physiological arousal, uncertainty and coping. We hypothesise that these learning opportunities will, over time, reduce children’s risk for elevated anxiety by increasing children’s expectations and ability to cope with anxiety, decreasing intolerance of uncertainty and preventing catastrophic misinterpretations of physiological arousal. If our conceptual model is correct then ensuring that children have the physical and psychological space required to play in an adventurous way may help to decrease their risk for elevated or clinical anxiety.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2011
DOI: 10.1016/J.NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA.2010.11.023
Abstract: There is increasing evidence that Williams syndrome (WS) is associated with elevated anxiety that is non-social in nature, including generalised anxiety and fears. To date very little research has examined the cognitive processes associated with this anxiety. In the present research, attentional bias for non-social threatening images in WS was examined using a dot-probe paradigm. Participants were 16 in iduals with WS aged between 13 and 34 years and two groups of typically developing controls matched to the WS group on chronological age and attentional control ability, respectively. The WS group exhibited a significant attention bias towards threatening images. In contrast, no bias was found for group matched on attentional control and a slight bias away from threat was found in the chronological age matched group. The results are contrasted with recent findings suggesting that in iduals with WS do not show an attention bias for threatening faces and discussed in relation to neuroimaging research showing elevated amygdala activation in response to threatening non-social scenes in WS.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2022
DOI: 10.1016/J.JANXDIS.2022.102559
Abstract: The current systematic review and meta-analyses examined the efficacy of psychological interventions targeting behavioural inhibition and anxiety in preschool-aged children, evaluated within randomised controlled trials. Web of Science, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and CINAHL were systematically searched from inception to March 2021. Ten studies (N = 1475 children, aged 3 - 7 years) were included in the current review. Separate analyses were conducted for behavioural inhibition, anxiety symptoms, and anxiety diagnosis as reported by parents, teachers, and observer-ratings. Pooled outcomes ranged from post-intervention to 12-month follow-up due to the limited number of studies. Meta-analyses revealed that intervention did not reduce behavioural inhibition as assessed by independent observers (SMD = -0.13, 95% CI = -0.63 to.38), but did reduce behavioural inhibition as reported by parents (SMC = -0.64, 95% CI = -1.00 to -0.27) and teachers (SMD = -0.69, 95% CI = -1.02 to -0.36). Additionally, intervention appeared to reduce the risk of anxiety disorders (RR =0.75, 95% CI =0.62 to.90), and parent-report anxiety symptoms (SMC = -0.47, 95% CI = -0.83 to -0.12) in preschool-aged children. Intervention may be efficacious in reducing anxiety in preschool-aged behaviourally inhibited children. It is less clear whether intervention leads to change in BI.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 14-09-2021
Abstract: Uncertainty and emotion are an inevitable part of everyday life and play a vital role in mental health. Yet, our understanding of how uncertainty and emotion interact is limited. Here, an online survey was conducted (n = 231) to examine whether uncertainty evokes and modulates a range of negative and positive emotions. The data show that uncertainty is predominantly associated with negative emotional states such as fear/anxiety. However, uncertainty was also found to modulate a variety of other negative (i.e. sadness/upset, anger/frustration, confusion) and positive (i.e. surprise/interest and excited/enthusiastic) emotional states, depending on the valence of an anticipated outcome (i.e. negative, positive) and the sub parameter of uncertainty (i.e. risk and ambiguity). Uncertainty increased the intensity of negative emotional states and decreased the intensity of positive emotional states. These findings support prior research suggesting that uncertainty is aversive and associated with negative emotional states such as fear and anxiety. However, the findings also revealed that uncertainty is involved in eliciting and modulating a wide array of emotional phenomena beyond fear and anxiety. This study highlights an opportunity for further study of how uncertainty and emotion interactions are conceptualised generally and in relation to mental health.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2023
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Start Date: 2020
End Date: 2025
Funder: European Commission
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2020
End Date: 2021
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2014
End Date: 2017
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2020
End Date: 2024
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2021
End Date: 2023
Funder: UK Research and Innovation
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2019
End Date: 2021
Funder: UK Research and Innovation
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2015
End Date: 2019
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council
View Funded Activity