A new parenting-based group intervention for young anxious children: results of a randomized controlled trial

Objective Despite recent advances, there are still no interventions that have been developed for the specific treatment of young children who have anxiety disorders. This study examined the impact of a new, cognitive–behaviorally based parenting intervention on anxiety symptoms. Method Families of 74 anxious children (aged 9 years or less) took part in a randomized controlled trial, which compared the new 10-session, group-format intervention with a wait-list control condition. Outcome measures included blinded diagnostic interview and self-reports from parents and children. Results Intention-to-treat analyses indicated that children whose parent(s) received the intervention were significantly less anxious at the end of the study than those in the control condition. Specifically, 57% of those receiving the new intervention were free of their primary disorder, compared with 15% in the control condition. Moreover, 32% of treated children were free of any anxiety diagnosis at the end of the treatment period, compared with 6% of those in the control group. Treatment gains were maintained at 12-month follow-up. Conclusions This new parenting-based intervention may represent an advance in the treatment of this previously neglected group. Clinical trial registration information: Anxiety in Young Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a New Cognitive-Behaviourally Based Parenting Intervention; http://www.isrctn.org/; ISRCTN12166762

COVID-19 Meets Control-Value Theory: Emotional Reactions to Canceled High-Stakes Examinations

In many countries, examinations scheduled for summer 2020 were canceled as part of measures designed to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. To examine how four retrospective emotions about canceled examinations (relief, gratitude, disappointment, and anger) and one prospective emotion (test anxiety) were related to control-value appraisals, a sample of 474 participants in the UK aged 15-19 years, who would have taken high-stakes examinations if they had not been canceled, self-reported measures of control, value, retrospective emotions and test anxiety. Data were analysed using the confirmatory factor analysis within exploratory structural equation modeling (EwC) approach. Relief, gratitude, and anger were predicted from expectancy × value interactions. Disappointment was related to expectancy only. Test anxiety was predicted independently by expectancy and positive/negative value. Findings offer broad support for Control-Value Theory and show how the appraisals underpinning achievement emotions can differ when focused on canceled examinations rather than success or failure

Teacher Use of Loss-Focused, Utility Value Messages, Prior to High-Stakes Examinations, and Their Appraisal by Students

This study set out to assess a new instrument designed to measure the perceived frequency that teachers use fear appeals (communicated value messages that focus on avoiding failure) prior to a high-stakes examination and their appraisal as a challenge or a threat. Data were collected from two samples of students preparing for their high-stakes school exit examinations. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a three-factor structure of message frequency, challenge, and threat appraisal. Challenge appraisal positively correlated with value, academic self-efficacy, and engagement. Threat appraisal negatively correlated with academic self-efficacy and engagement. Message frequency was unrelated to value, academic self-efficacy, and engagement. The critical factor in determining relations with antecedents and outcomes is not the message frequency but how it is appraised

Control-Value Appraisals, Enjoyment, and Boredom in Mathematics:A Longitudinal Latent Interaction Analysis

Based on the control-value theory of achievement emotions, this longitudinal study examined students' control-value appraisals as antecedents of their enjoyment and boredom in mathematics. Self-report data for appraisals and emotions were collected from 579 students in their final year of primary schooling over three waves. Data were analyzed using latent interaction structural equation modeling. Control-value appraisals predicted emotions interactively depending on which specific subjective value was paired with perceived control. Achievement value amplified the positive relation between perceived control and enjoyment, and intrinsic value reduced the negative relation between perceived control and boredom. These longitudinal findings demonstrate that control and value appraisals, and their interaction, are critically important for the development of students' enjoyment and boredom over time

Experiencing fear appeals as a challenge or a threat influences attainment value and academic self-efficacy

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Fear appeals are persuasive messages that highlight the negative consequences of a particular course of action. Studies have shown that attainment value and academic self-efficacy predict how fear appeals are appraised. In this study we examined how the appraisal of fear appeals might also influence subsequent attainment value and academic self-efficacy. Self-report data were collected from 1433 students in their final two years of secondary education over three waves. Findings revealed that when students saw fear appeals as a challenge attainment value and academic self-efficacy were higher. When students saw fear appeals as a threat, attainment value and academic self-efficacy were lower. These results highlight the functional importance of how fear appeals are appraised. Challenge and threat appraisals were not mere by products of attainment value or academic self-efficacy but impacted on attainment value and academic self-efficacy; variables that are likely to make a critical impact on educational progress and attainment. We conclude that initial teacher education and teacher professional development programs would benefit from enhanced interpersonal and relational-skills training to enable teachers to judge more effectively how fear appeals are appraised

Expectancy of success, subjective task-value, and message frame in the appraisal of value-promoting messages made prior to a high-stakes examination

© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Previous research has examined how subjective task-value and expectancy of success influence the appraisal of value-promoting messages used by teachers prior to high-stakes examinations. The aim of this study was to examine whether message-frame (gain or loss-framed messages) also influences the appraisal of value-promoting messages. Two hundred and fifty-two participants in Years 12 and 13 read vignettes of fictional students who were high or low in subjective-task value, and expectancy of success, and asked to imagine how that student would appraise either a gain or loss-framed message. A challenge appraisal followed vignettes with high subjective task-value and high expectancy of success whereas a threat appraisal followed vignettes with high subjective task-value and low expectancy of success. A loss-framed message resulted in a stronger threat appraisal, and a gain-framed message in a greater disregarding appraisal for the vignette with high subjective task-value and high expectancy of success. Value-promoting messages can be appraised in different ways depending on combinations of intrapersonal (subjective task-value and expectancy of success) and interpersonal (message-frame) influences. © 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrech