Threat Appraisal and Pediatric Anxiety: Proof of Concept of a Latent Variable Approach.

ABSTRACT: Elevated threat appraisal is a postulated neurodevelopmental mechanism of anxiety disorders. However, laboratory-assessed threat appraisals are task-specific and subject to measurement error. We utilized latent variable analysis to integrate youth's self-reported threat appraisals across different experimental tasks; we next examined associations with pediatric anxiety as well as behavioral and psychophysiological task indices. Ninety-two youth ages 8-17 years (M age=13.07, 65% female), including 51 with a primary anxiety disorder and 41 with no Axis I diagnosis, completed up to eight threat-exposure tasks. Anxiety symptoms were assessed using questionnaires and ecological momentary assessment. Appraisals both prior to and following threat exposures evidenced shared variance across

SUBMITTER: Bernstein RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11544680 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature