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This study evaluated the effectiveness of a school-based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) on symptoms of anxiety, social worry and social responsiveness, and indices of attentional control and attentional biases to threat in adolescents diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Thirty-five young people (11-14 years; IQ > 70) with ASD and elevated teacher or parent reported anxiety were randomly assigned to 6 sessions of the Exploring Feelings CBT intervention (Attwood in Exploring feelings (anxiety). Future Horizons, Arlington, 2004) (n = 18) or a wait-list control group (n = 17). The intervention (compared to the wait-list control) group showed positive change for parent, teacher and self-reported anxiety symptoms, and more marginal effects of increased teacher-reported social responsiveness. The discussion highlights the potential value and limitations of school-based CBT for young people with ASD.

Anxious individuals report hyper-arousal and sensitivity to environmental stimuli, difficulties concentrating, performing tasks efficiently and inhibiting unwanted thoughts and distraction. We used pupillometry and eye-movement measures to compare high vs. low anxious individuals hyper-reactivity to emotional stimuli (facial expressions) and subsequent attentional biases in a memory-guided pro- and antisaccade task during conditions of low and high cognitive load (short vs. long delay). High anxious individuals produced larger and slower pupillary responses to face stimuli, and more erroneous eye-movements, particularly following long delay. Low anxious individuals' pupillary responses were sensitive to task demand (reduced during short delay), whereas high anxious individuals' were not. These findings provide evidence in anxiety of enhanced, sustained and inflexible patterns of pupil responding during affective stimulus processing and cognitive load that precede deficits in task performance., (Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

This paper examined the reliability, convergent validity and factor structure of the self-report Screen for Child Anxiety Disorders (SCARED; Birmaher et al. in J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 36:545-553, 1997) in a large community sample of children and adolescents in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire showed moderate to high internal consistency and satisfactory test-retest reliability over a 2 week period. In addition, there were significant positive correlations between reported anxiety symptoms with parent report behavioural difficulties. The five factor structure model of the SCARED also had a good model fit in this population. The results showed that self-report anxiety symptoms decreased with age (for boys and not girls) and were higher in adolescent girls. The results suggest that the SCARED could be useful in this population to identify individuals who are at risk of developing anxiety disorders in childhood with a view to implementing prevention and intervention methods to ensure positive developmental outcome over time.

Cognitive interference theories (e.g. attentional control theory, processing efficiency theory) suggest that high levels of trait anxiety predict adverse effects on the performance of cognitive tasks, particularly those that make high demands on cognitive resources. We tested an interaction hypothesis to determine whether a combination of high anxiety and low working memory capacity (WMC) would predict variance in demanding cognitive test scores. Ninety six adolescents (12- to 14-years-old) participated in the study, which measured self-report levels of trait anxiety, working memory, and cognitive test performance. As hypothesized, we found that the anxiety-WMC interaction explained a significant amount of variance in cognitive test performance (ΔR(2) .07, p < .01). Trait anxiety was unrelated to cognitive test performance for those adolescents with average WMC scores (β = .13, p > .10). In contrast, trait anxiety was negatively related to test performance in adolescents with low WMC (β = -.35, p < .05) and positively related to test performance in those with high WMC (β = .49, p < .01). The results of this study suggest that WMC moderates the relationship between anxiety and cognitive test performance and may be a determinant factor in explaining some discrepancies found in the literature. Further research is needed to fully understand the mechanisms involved., (© 2012 The British Psychological Society.)

Theoretical frameworks of anxiety propose that attentional biases to threat-related stimuli cause or maintain anxious states. The current paper draws on theoretical frameworks and key empirical studies to outline the distinctive attentional processes highlighted as being important in understanding anxiety. We develop a conceptual framework to make a distinction between two attentional biases: selective attention to threat and hypervigilance for threat. We suggest that these biases each have a different purpose and can account for the typical patterns of facilitated and impaired attention evident in anxious individuals. The framework is novel in its specification of the eye movement behavior associated with these attentional biases. We highlight that selective attention involves narrowing overt attention onto threat to ensure that these stimuli receive processing priority, leading to rapid engagement with task-relevant threat and delayed disengagement from task-irrelevant threat. We show that hypervigilance operates in the presence and absence of threat and involves monitoring for potential dangers via attentional broadening or excessive scanning of the environment with numerous eye movements, leading to improved threat detection and increased distraction from task-irrelevant threat. We conclude that future research could usefully employ eye movement measures to more clearly understand the diverse roles of attention in anxiety., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The current study explored the proposition that anxiety is associated with impaired inhibition of threat. Using a modified version of the remote distractor paradigm, we considered whether this impairment is related to attentional capture by threat, difficulties disengaging from threat presented within foveal vision, or difficulties orienting to task-relevant stimuli when threat is present in central, parafoveal and peripheral locations in the visual field. Participants were asked to direct their eyes towards and identify a target in the presence and absence of a distractor (an angry, happy or neutral face). Trait anxiety was associated with a delay in initiating eye movements to the target in the presence of central, parafoveal and peripheral threatening distractors. These findings suggest that elevated anxiety is linked to difficulties inhibiting task-irrelevant threat presented across a broad region of the visual field.

In the present study, we explored the proposition that an individual's capacity for threat detection is related to his or her trait anxiety. Using a redundant signals paradigm with concurrent measurements of reaction times and eye movements, participants indicated the presence or absence of an emotional target face (angry or happy) in displays containing no targets, one target, or two targets. We used estimates of the orderings on the hazard functions of the RT distributions as measures of processing capacity (Townsend & Ashby, 1978; Wenger & Gibson, Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance, 30,708-719, 2004) to assess whether self-reported anxiety and the affective state of the face interacted with the level of perceptual load (i.e., the number of targets). Results indicated that anxiety was associated with fewer eye movements and increased processing capacity to detect multiple (vs. single) threatening faces. The data are consistent with anxiety influencing threat detection via a broadly tuned attentional mechanism (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, Emotion, 7,336-353, 2007).

This study used an emotional face stroop task to investigate the effects of self-report trait anxiety, social concern (SC), and chronological age (CA) on reaction time to match coloured outlines of angry, happy, and neutral faces (and control faces with scrambled features) with coloured buttons in a community sample of 74 children aged 6-12 years. The results showed an interference of colour matching for angry (relative to neutral) faces in children with elevated SC. The same effect was not found for happy or control faces. In addition, the results suggest that selective attention to angry faces in children with social concern (SC) was not significantly moderated by age.

Working memory skills are positively associated with academic performance. In contrast, high levels of trait anxiety are linked with educational underachievement. Based on Eysenck and Calvo's (1992) processing efficiency theory (PET), the present study investigated whether associations between anxiety and educational achievement were mediated via poor working memory performance. Fifty children aged 11-12 years completed verbal (backwards digit span; tapping the phonological store/central executive) and spatial (Corsi blocks; tapping the visuospatial sketchpad/central executive) working memory tasks. Trait anxiety was measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children. Academic performance was assessed using school administered tests of reasoning (Cognitive Abilities Test) and attainment (Standard Assessment Tests). The results showed that the association between trait anxiety and academic performance was significantly mediated by verbal working memory for three of the six academic performance measures (math, quantitative and non-verbal reasoning). Spatial working memory did not significantly mediate the relationship between trait anxiety and academic performance. On average verbal working memory accounted for 51% of the association between trait anxiety and academic performance, while spatial working memory only accounted for 9%. The findings indicate that PET is a useful framework to assess the impact of children's anxiety on educational achievement.

The relationship between children's anxiety and cognitive biases was examined in two tasks. A group of 50 children aged 10 to 11 years (mean = 11 years, SD = 3.71 months) was given two tasks. The first tested children's selective attention (SA) to threat in an emotional Stroop task. The second explored facial processing biases using morphed angry-neutral and happy-neutral emotional expressions that varied in intensity. Faces with varying levels of emotion (25% emotion-75% neutral, 50% emotion-50% neutral, 100% emotion-0% neutral [prototype] and 150% emotion-0% neutral [caricature]) were judged as being angry or happy. Results support previous work highlighting a link between anxiety and SA to threat. In addition, increased anxiety in late childhood is associated with decreased ability to discriminate facial expression. Finally, lack of discrimination in the emotional expression task was related to lack of inhibition to threat in the Stroop task.

The behavioral inhibition system [Gray, J. A. The neuropsychology of anxiety: An enquiry into the functions of the septo-hippocampal system. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982] proposes that anxiety is associated with the processing of novel stimuli. We aimed to explore this relationship by recording auditory event-related potentials associated with unexpected novel noises in typically developing children. Children aged 10-14 years with low (n = 12) and high (n = 11) self-report trait anxiety were assessed using a novelty oddball task. The N1 associated with novel stimuli, specifically the "N1c" component maximal at temporal lobe sites, was of significantly longer latency (p = .014) and greater amplitude (p = .004) in the high compared with the low anxious group. This group difference was supported by linear correlations between N1c amplitude and trait anxiety scores. There was no effect of anxiety on the later novelty P3. These data suggest a subtle moderating role of trait anxiety on brain response to novelty, and further research with clinically anxious children is indicated.

This study investigated associations between anxious and depressive symptoms in 7- and 9-year-olds and their judgements of intention. It asked children to judge how a protagonist (other judgement) and they themselves (self-judgement) would interpret the intention of a second character, where this intention was ambiguously negative or benign. The results showed that levels of self-report depressive symptoms predicted an increase in the number of negative interpretations for self (but not for other) judgements. In comparison, increased levels of parent-report anxiety symptoms predicted an increase in number of negative interpretations for other (but not for self) judgements.

Background: This study presents two experiments that investigated the relationship between 7- and 10-year-olds' levels of self-report trait anxiety and depression and their visual search for threatening (angry faces) and non-threatening (happy and neutral faces) stimuli., Method: In both experiments a visual search paradigm was used to measure participants' reaction times to detect the presence or absence of angry, happy or neutral schematic faces (Experiment 1) or cartoon drawings (Experiment 2). On target present trials, a target face was displayed alongside three, five or seven distractor items. On target absent trials all items were distractors., Results: Both experiments demonstrated that on target absent (but not present) trials, increased levels of anxiety produced significantly faster search times in the angry face condition, but not in the neutral condition. In Experiment 2 there was some trend towards significance between anxiety and searches for happy faces in absent trials. There were no effects of depression on search times in any condition., Conclusion: The results support previous work highlighting a specific link between anxiety and attention to threat in childhood.

Successive relearning involves repeated retrieval practice of the same information (with feedback) over multiple, spaced sessions. We implemented successive relearning in an introductory psychology class to explore potential learning benefits. After each weekly lecture, students were sent links via e-mail to engage in three learning practice sessions, each separated by 2 days. Half the students engaged in successive relearning ("relearn" condition), answering 20 fill-in-the-blank questions with corrective feedback. Within each session, correctly answered questions were dropped, whereas incorrectly answered questions were presented up to two more times. The other half of students restudied the same 20 sentences without blanks twice per session ("restudy" condition). Unlike previous research, we controlled the exposure duration of the learning materials between the relearn and restudy conditions. Learning practice sessions continued throughout the remaining 10 weeks of the semester, with students alternating each week between the relearning and restudying tasks. Recall of course material at the end of the semester was better for relearning compared with restudying. Increased recall during relearning sessions was associated with further learning benefits including improved metacognition, increased self-reported sense of mastery, increased attentional control, and reduced anxiety. Individual differences were not associated with the benefit of relearning over restudying in the retention tests. Qualitative feedback indicated that students found successive relearning to be enjoyable and valuable. Our research indicates that successive relearning is a valuable addition to any university course and is easy to implement using digital resources.

Selective mutism (SM) is typically identified in early childhood and is characterised by a lack of speech in specific social situations, usually at school. This study interviewed 11 teachers and used qualitative methods to develop an explanatory framework to represent the lived experience of teaching pupils with SM. Interviews were analysed using grounded theory methods. The final theoretical framework captured nine categories. This included five key processes: "categorisation" of teacher beliefs; the development and change in beliefs through a process of "scientific enquiry"; teacher efforts to "support" pupils; measuring and "monitoring" pupil progress; management of teacher "emotional responses," and four contextual factors; "pupil characteristics," "peer relationships," "teacher self-identity" and "staff relationships." The findings highlighted a link between teacher categorisation of SM and pupil support. Implications of the framework for guiding research and educator practice to support pupils with SM are discussed.

Anxiety and depression are linked to lower academic performance. It is proposed that academic performance is reduced in young people with high levels of anxiety or depression as a function of increased test-specific worry that impinges on working memory central executive processes. Participants were typically developing children (12 to 13-years-old) from two UK schools. The study investigated the relationship between negative affect, worry, working memory, and academic performance using self-report questionnaires, school administered academic test data, and a battery of computerized working memory tasks. Higher levels of anxiety and depression were associated with lower academic performance. There was support for a mediation hypothesis, where worry and central executive processes mediated the link between negative affect and academic performance. Further studies should test these hypotheses in larger longitudinal samples. Implications for school psychology practice and interventions in schools are discussed. (Contains 2 tables and 3 figures.)

Aggression in young people has been associated with a bias toward attributing hostile intent to others. However, little is known about the origin of biased social information processing. The current study explored the potential role of peer contagion in the emergence of hostile attribution in adolescents. One hundred thirty-four adolescents (M age = 13.8 years) were assigned to one of two manipulated "chat-room" conditions, where they believed they were communicating with online peers (e-confederates) who endorsed either hostile or benign intent attributions. Adolescents showed increased hostile attributions following exposure to hostile e-confederates and reduced hostility in the benign condition. Further analyses demonstrated that social anxiety was associated with a reduced tendency to take on hostile peer attitudes. Neither gender nor levels of aggression influenced individual susceptibility to peer influence, but aggressive adolescents reported greater affinity with hostile e-confederates. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

This study investigated the effect of individual differences in state anxiety on tasks tapping the central executive, phonological, and visuo-spatial components of working memory (WM). It was designed to test Eysenck and Calvo's processing efficiency theory (PET) which suggests that the phonological and executive components of WM may be important in understanding learning outcomes in anxiety. Typically-developing children aged 9-10 years were split into high and low state anxiety groups. They performed three WM tasks--forward and backward digit span (assumed to measure phonological and central executive components of WM respectively) and a spatial working memory task (measuring the visuo-spatial component of WM). Measurements of task accuracy were taken as an indicator of performance outcome or effectiveness. Time taken to complete tasks and a subjective rating of mental effort were taken as measurements of performance efficiency. No differences were found between high and low state anxiety groups in task accuracy for any measure. Children in the high state anxiety group, however, took longer to complete the backward digit span task and reported increased mental effort in the forward digit span task, indicating some effect of anxiety on measures of performance efficiency.

Objective: This study examined the synergistic effects of ADHD and anxiety symptoms on attention and inhibitory control depending on the emotional content of the stimuli. Method: Fifty-four typically developing individuals (27 children/adolescents and 27 adults) completed an eye-movement based emotional Go/No-Go task, using centrally presented (happy, angry) faces and neutral/symbolic stimuli. Sustained attention was measured through saccade latencies and saccadic omission errors (Go trials), and inhibitory control through saccadic commission errors (No-Go trials). ADHD and anxiety were assessed dimensionally. Results: Elevated ADHD symptoms were associated with more commission errors and slower saccade latencies for angry (vs. happy) faces. In contrast, angry faces were linked to faster saccade onsets when anxiety symptoms were high, and this effect prevailed when both anxiety and ADHD symptoms were high. Conclusion: Social threat impacted performance in individuals with sub-clinical anxiety and ADHD differently. The effects of anxiety on threat processing prevailed when both symptoms were high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • This paper explored symptoms of anxiety and depression in a sample of adults diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder in adulthood. • Lower age, increased autism severity and female gender independently contributed to self-reported anxiety symptoms. • Establishing the presence of anxiety and depression during the diagnostic process will inform mental health interventions. Abstract Symptoms of anxiety and depression are commonly reported by adults diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and their presence can exacerbate core autism symptoms and lower quality of life. This study investigated the symptom profile of anxiety and depression, and its correlates (i.e., age at diagnosis, gender, and ASD severity) in a group of adults who were referred to a specialist diagnostic centre for autism and whose diagnosis was confirmed. It explored whether this profile was different in adults who were referred to the same clinic and where the diagnosis was not confirmed. The results showed that 37% and 46% of adults who received a diagnosis of ASD in adulthood reported symptoms that reflected moderate or severe anxiety or depression. In addition, (lower) age, female gender and autism severity contributed independently to individual differences in self-reported anxiety symptoms. Autism severity and the number of adults who reported severe (vs. minimal) anxiety symptoms were increased in the diagnosed (versus the non-diagnosed) adult group. We discuss the implications for prevention and treatment and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study used an eye-movement Remote Distractor Paradigm (RDP) to explore attention to threat and considered associations with personality traits (neuroticism and psychoticism) and self-reported friendship quality in children aged 9–11 years. The RDP asked children to look at and identify a target presented on a computer display in the presence or absence of a central, parafoveal or peripheral visual distractor (an angry, happy or neutral face). The results showed that symptoms of neuroticism were associated with hypervigilance for threat (i.e., slower latencies to initiate eye movements to the target in the presence of angry versus happy or neutral faces). In addition, when distractors were presented centrally, this relationship was most evident in children who reported lower levels of attentional control. Psychoticism traits were associated with increased selective attention to all distractors (as measured by directional errors to face stimuli) and to child reported lower friendship quality. Moreover, the negative relationship between psychoticism and friendship characteristics associated with companionship was mediated via attentional capture of threat (i.e., a greater proportion of directional errors to angry distractors). The findings have potential to inform the development of translational research, to reduce symptoms of psychopathology and address attentional biases to threat with an aim to improve peer relationships in late childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study examined the impact of a working memory (WM) training programme on measures of WM, IQ, behavioural inhibition, self-report test and trait anxiety and teacher reported emotional and behavioural difficulties and attentional control before and after WM training and at a 3month follow-up. The WM training group (N =7) showed significantly better post-training on measures of IQ, inhibition, test anxiety and teacher-reported behaviour, attention and emotional symptoms, compared with a non-intervention passive control group (N =8). Group differences in WM were also evident at follow-up. The results indicated that WM training has some potential to be used to reduce the development of school related difficulties and associated mental health problems in young people. Further research using larger sample sizes and monitoring over a longer time period is needed to replicate and extend these results. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to explore parenting as one potential route through which information processing biases for threat develop in children. It reviews information processing biases in childhood anxiety in the context of theoretical models and empirical research in the adult anxiety literature. Specifically, it considers how adult models have been used and adapted to develop a theoretical framework with which to investigate information processing biases in children. The paper then considers research which specifically aims to understand the relationship between parenting and the development of information processing biases in children. It concludes that a clearer theoretical framework is required to understand the significance of information biases in childhood anxiety, as well as their origins in parenting. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]