The effects of reading social anxiety words on anxious responding.

Two studies were conducted to determine if repeated exposure to social anxiety words decreased anxious responding in individuals diagnosed with social phobia. In the first study, four participants were asked to read words aloud, and in the second study, three participants were asked to read words silently. Single-subject methodology, using an alternating treatments design, was utilized. Anxious responding was assessed via Stroop test color-naming time of social and neutral words, word-reading time of social and neutral words, heart rate during word-reading and color-naming, and self-reports of distress. Results indicate that repeated reading of social anxiety words reduces anxious responding, and that this effect is not simply due to the performance-based nature of the task. Reading social words aloud, however, a procedure which combines exposure to the social words and to a social performance task, has the most anxiety-reducing properties

Bringing Evidence-Based Child Mental Health Services to the Schools: General Issues and Specific Populations

Epidemiological research indicates a high prevalence of psychiatric disorders among children and adolescents. Approximately 21% of children and adolescents, ages 9 to 17, have a diagnosable psychiatric disorder (Costello et al., 1996; Shaffer et al., 1996; U.S. Public Health Service, 2000), and additional youngsters experience social and emotional difficulties that do not meet symptom criteria for a disorder but cause considerable distress and impairment in functioning. Unfortunately, there is a significant gap between the many youth who are in need of treatment and those who actually receive menfal health care (Burns et al., 1995; Leaf et al., 1996). According to the Surgeon General’s 1999 report on mental health, 6 to 9 million youngsters with emotional problems are not receiving the help they require (U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999). The failure to provide treatment to youth represents a major public health concern (U.S. Public Health Service, 2000)

Psychometric Evaluation of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children: Concurrent Validity and Normative Data.

Examined the relation of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C) to the Social Anxiety Scale for Children-Revised (SASC-R). The association between the SPAI-C and the SASC-R was moderate, suggesting that the measures assess overlapping, although not identical, constructs. Initial normative data are reported on the SPAI-C for a community sample of 277 4th-through 6th-grade children. Girls reported higher social anxiety on both measures than did boys. Notably, a substantial proportion of children were found to exceed suggested cut-off scores on both measures for identifying children with high levels of social anxiety, which suggests the importance of screening elementary-age children for social fears

Food Allergy and Social Anxiety in a Community Sample of Adolescents

This investigation explored the relationship between food allergies and social anxiety in a school-based sample of adolescents. A total of 849 participants, including 87 endorsing food allergies, completed standardized questionnaires assessing social anxiety symptoms. Food allergic participants answered questions assessing allergy characteristics, worry and avoidance related to allergen exposure and allergy disclosure, and parental worry and control. Boys with food allergies reported higher social anxiety than boys without food allergies, though no differences were found in girls. Social anxiety was correlated with parental worry and control. Findings may inform anxiety prevention programs for youth with food allergies

Vicarious Learning Revisited: A Contemporary Behavior Analytic Interpretation

Beginning in the 1960s, social learning theorists argued that behavioral learning principles could not account for behavior acquired through observation. Such a viewpoint is still widely held today. This rejection of behavioral principles in explaining vicarious learning was based on three phenomena: (1) imitation that occurred without direct reinforcement of the observer\u27s behavior; (2) imitation that occurred after a long delay following modeling; and (3) a greater probability of imitation of the model\u27s reinforced behavior than of the model\u27s nonreinforced or punished behavior. These observations convinced social learning theorists that cognitive variables were required to explain behavior. Such a viewpoint has progressed aggressively, as evidenced by the change in name from social learning theory to social cognitive theory, and has been accompanied by the inclusion of information-processing theory. Many criticisms of operant theory, however, have ignored the full range of behavioral concepts and principles that have been derived to account for complex behavior. This paper will discuss some problems with the social learning theory explanation of vicarious learning and provide an interpretation of vicarious learning from a contemporary behavior analytic viewpoint

Assessing Clinical Improvement in School-Based Treatment for Social Anxiety Disorder: Agreement Between Adolescents, Parents, and Independent Evaluators

The Clinical Global Impressions of Improvement (CGI-I) scale is widely used in clinical trials to monitor clinically meaningful change during treatment. Although it is standard practice in research to have independent evaluators (IEs) complete the CGI-I, this approach is not practical in school and community settings. Few studies have explored the potential utility of other informants, such as youth and parents. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate agreement between IEs and both adolescents and parents in CGI-I improvement ratings in the context of a randomized controlled trial of cognitive-behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder, as delivered by psychologists and school counselors. Multilevel growth models indicated that IEs were generally more conservative in their ratings of positive treatment response across time and treatment conditions, though greater agreement was observed between parents and IEs by post-intervention and 5-month follow-up. Possible explanations for these findings and suggestions for alternative approaches are discussed

The Relationship of Peer Victimization to Social Anxiety and Loneliness in Adolescent Females

This study examined the relationship of overt and relational victimization to social anxiety, loneliness, and prosocial behaviours in a sample of female adolescents. The Social Experience Questionnaire, Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents, and Asher Loneliness Scale were administered to 561 girls in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh grades of an urban parochial high school. Consistent with prior work, overt and relational victimization were positively associated with fear of negative evaluation, social avoidance of general and new situations, and loneliness. In addition, prosocial behaviours from peers moderated the effects of relational victimization on loneliness. Implications of these findings for the role of peer victimization and prosocial behaviours in female relationships are discussed