Interpretation bias in anxiety a synthesis of studies with children and adolescents

AbstractWe present a synthesis of the studies that have investigated the interpretation bias of ambiguous information in children and adolescents with anxiety. In particular, we examine how the threat is perceived, if it is general or specific and in accordance with the anxiety, the probability and cost of social events, judgment on the probability of future negative events and their occurrence to oneself vs. others and parents’ influence on the interpretation of ambiguity by their children. Finally, we review the classical theoretical models (i.e, the Schema Theory and Associative Network Theory) and more recent one (i.e., the theory of Williams et al., 1988, 1997) which try to explain this bias