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Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health

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Open Access 01-12-2023 | Anxiety | Research

Specific interpretation biases as a function of social anxiety and callous-unemotional traits in a community and a clinical adolescent sample

Authors: Anna L. Dapprich, Eni S. Becker, Laura M. Derks, Tanja Legenbauer, Wolf-Gero Lange

Published in: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health | Issue 1/2023

Abstract

Background

Threatening and hostile interpretation biases are seen as causal and maintaining mechanisms of childhood anxiety and aggression, respectively. However, it is unclear whether these interpretation biases are specific to distinct problems or whether they are general psychopathological phenomena. The specificity versus pervasiveness of interpretation biases could also differ depending on mental health status. Therefore, in the current study, we investigated whether social anxiety and callous-unemotional (CU) traits were uniquely related to threatening and hostile interpretation biases, respectively, in both a community and a clinical sample of adolescents.

Methods

A total of 161 adolescents between 10 to 15 years of age participated. The community sample consisted of 88 participants and the clinical sample consisted of 73 inpatients with a variety of psychological disorders. Social anxiety and CU-traits were assessed with self-report questionnaires. The Ambiguous Social Scenario Task was used to measure both threatening and hostile interpretations in response to written vignettes.

Results

Results showed that social anxiety was uniquely related to more threatening interpretations, while CU-traits were uniquely related to more hostile interpretations. These relationships were replicated for the community sample. For the clinical sample, only the link between social anxiety and threatening interpretations was significant. Explorative analyses showed that adolescents with externalizing disorders scored higher on hostile interpretations than adolescents with internalizing disorders.

Conclusions

Overall, these results support the content-specificity of threatening interpretation biases in social anxiety and of hostile interpretation biases in CU-traits. Better understanding the roles of interpretation biases in different psychopathologies might open avenues for tailored prevention and intervention paradigms.

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Title: Specific interpretation biases as a function of social anxiety and callous-unemotional traits in a community and a clinical adolescent sample
Authors: Anna L. Dapprich
Eni S. Becker
Laura M. Derks
Tanja Legenbauer
Wolf-Gero Lange
Publication date: 01-12-2023
Publisher: BioMed Central
Keyword: Anxiety
Published in: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health / Issue 1/2023
Electronic ISSN: 1753-2000
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-023-00585-z

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Specific interpretation biases as a function of social anxiety and callous-unemotional traits in a community and a clinical adolescent sample

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

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