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Testing the cognitive content-specificity hypothesis with anxious and depressed youngsters
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
|May 1, 1993
Summary
This study partially supports Beck's cognitive model in children, finding that the valence of depressive thoughts, not anxious thoughts, helps distinguish between anxiety and depression in youngsters.
Area of Science:
- Child and Adolescent Psychology
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Developmental Psychopathology
Background:
- Beck's cognitive model posits disorder-specific cognitive content in psychopathology.
- Empirical support exists for Beck's theory in adults and some aspects in children.
- The cognitive content-specificity hypothesis remains under-explored in pediatric populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test the cognitive content-specificity hypothesis in children with depressive and anxiety disorders.
- To examine if cognitive content differentiates between anxiety and depression in youth.
- To evaluate the role of positive and negative affectivity in pediatric emotional disorders.
Main Methods:
- Recruited 45 children (Grades 4-7) diagnosed with depressive or anxiety disorders and 18 controls.
- Administered measures of anxious and depressive cognitions to all participants.
- Analyzed cognitive data to identify group differences based on thought content.
Main Results:
- The valence of depressive cognitions significantly differentiated anxious, depressed, and mixed groups.
- Positively worded depressive items were more effective discriminators than negatively worded items.
- Anxious cognitions did not differentiate between the anxious, depressed, and mixed groups.
Conclusions:
- Findings offer partial support for Beck's cognitive content-specificity hypothesis in children.
- The positive-negative affectivity construct may be relevant for understanding pediatric emotional disorders.
- Cognitive content, particularly its valence, plays a role in differentiating emotional disorders in youth.
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