Language
English
Publication Date
1-1-2025
Journal
Cognitive Therapy and Research
DOI
10.1007/s10608-025-10612-2
PMID
41277995
PMCID
PMC12638344
PubMedCentral® Posted Date
5-2-2025
PubMedCentral® Full Text Version
Post-print
Abstract
Background: Internalizing disorders are the most common psychiatric disorders in youth and are associated with a host of deleterious outcomes (e.g., self-harm, substance use, interpersonal difficulties), highlighting the critical need for identifying risk factors that confer risk for these disorders. The present study investigated the unique and shared roles of two prominent cognitive biases-anxiety sensitivity and interpretation biases-as predictors of internalizing symptom severity in clinically anxious youth, above and beyond the effects of negative emotionality and after accounting for sociodemographic covariates.
Method: A diverse sample of clinically anxious youth (N = 105; Mage = 10.09 years, SD = 1.22; 56.7% female; 49% ethnic minority) completed a diagnostic interview and self-report measures of interpretation biases, anxiety sensitivity, and internalizing symptom severity.
Results: Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that both anxiety sensitivity (b = 0.77, 95% CI [0.53, 1.00], sr 2 = 0.11) and interpretation biases (b = 0.21, 95% CI [0.11, 0.30], sr 2 = 0.05) accounted for an additional 22% of unique variance in internalizing symptom severity (p < .001), above and beyond the effects of negative emotionality. Post hoc exploratory analyses identified the disease and social concerns facets of anxiety sensitivity, and the overgeneralization facet of interpretation biases, as predictors of internalizing symptoms.
Conclusion: Future research should examine whether targeting cognitive biases would be beneficial among temperamentally labile youth.
Keywords
Temperament, Negative emotionality, Anxiety sensitivity, Interpretation biases, Internalizing symptoms
Published Open-Access
yes
Recommended Citation
Amarneh, Dania Y; Zvolensky, Michael J; Storch, Eric A; et al., "Cognitive Predictors of Internalizing Symptoms in Clinically Anxious Youth" (2025). Faculty, Staff and Students Publications. 7914.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/baylor_docs/7914