An experimental investigation of thought suppression and anxiety in children

This study aimed to explore the effects of thought suppression in children--in particular, whether trying to suppress a thought leads to an immediate and/or delayed increase in its occurrence. The influence of anxiety on children's performance in the experimental paradigm was also examined.

Participants were allocated to conditions in a between-groups experimental design devised on the basis of thought suppression methodologies reported in the adult literature.

One-hundred and twelve participants were recruited from local primary schools and randomly allocated to four experimental conditions. Children in all conditions monitored the occurrence of a target thought (either neutral or anxiety-provoking) by tapping their hand on a table each time the thought came to mind during two consecutive experimental periods. During the first period, half the children were asked not to think about the target thought, while the remaining half were asked to think about anything. During the second period, all children were instructed to think about anything.

No evidence was found for either an immediate or a delayed increase in frequency of target thoughts as a consequence of suppression attempts. State and trait anxiety were, however, found to influence children's performance during these experimental tasks and were associated with increased intrusions under certain conditions.

The results of this study suggest that the experimental thought suppression paradigm is workable with 7-11-year-old children. The methodological, theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.