Affected by Anxiety : Age-related characteristics and cognitive biases of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental disorders among children and adolescents and more knowledge about anxiety disorders across the development of children and adolescents could contribute to diagnosis and treatment. This thesis presents several studies aimed at age-related characteristics of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents and the role of cognitive biases

Toddlers' preference for prosocial versus antisocial agents: No associations with empathy or attachment security

Research has indicated that the majority of infants and toddlers prefer prosocial to antisocial agents, but little research has examined interindividual differences in children's preference. This study examined whether 24-month-olds' (n = 107) sociomoral preference was associated with attachment security or empathy, assessed with the Attachment Q-Sort and the Empathy Questionnaire. Toddlers were presented with a puppet play, in which a protagonist tried to open a box and was helped by a prosocial agent and hindered by an antisocial agent. Then, toddlers were asked to pick up either the prosocial or the antisocial agent (manual choice), as a measure of their sociomoral preference. Of the 107 toddlers included in this study, 60.7% chose the prosocial over the antisocial agent. Neither empathy nor parent-child attachment was associated with children's preference. Our findings indicate a slight overall preference for the prosocial agent, but with notable interindividual differences not explained by empathy or attachment

Familial Aggregation of Cognitive Biases for Children with Anxiety Disorders

Previous studies described a relation between anxiety-related cognitive biases in normally developing children and parents. The current study examined the familial aggregation of cognitive biases in children with anxiety disorders (N = 55) and their parents, wit