Interpretation bias and social anxiety in adolescents

Interpretation bias, described as the tendency to interpret social situations in a negative or threatening manner, has been widely linked to social anxiety in adult populations. This study aimed to extend research on interpretation bias to an adolescent population. Thirty-seven high socially anxious and a control group of 36 non-socially anxious adolescents rated the likelihood of different interpretations of ambiguous social and non-social situations coming to mind and which interpretation they most believed. Results showed that negative interpretations of social situations were more common in the high anxious than control group. Such negative bias could not be accounted for by high levels of negative affect. The groups did not differ as to their positive interpretations. Furthermore, there was evidence for content specificity of interpretation bias; high anxious adolescents were not more negative than control participants in their interpretations of non-social situations. Findings are discussed in relation to the adult literature and their clinical relevance is considered.