Cognitive biases among early adolescents with elevated symptoms of anxiety, depression, and co‐occurring symptoms of anxiety‐depression

Abstract

Anxiety and depression are often highly correlated in adolescence, and cognitive biases are commonly associated with both types of symptoms. The purpose of this study was to examine cognitive biases in early adolescents showing: (a) elevated symptoms of anxiety; (b) elevated symptoms of depression; (c) elevated co‐occurring symptoms of anxiety and depression; and (d) neither elevated symptoms of anxiety nor depression (comparison group). In particular, we were interested in the extent to which certain cognitive biases showed symptom specificity. Participants were N = 686 10‐ to 14‐year‐olds, who provided self‐reports of anxiety, depression, and measures of cognitive biases. Four groups were created based on quartile cutoffs: anxious, depressed, anxious‐depressed, and comparison. Among the results from multivariate analysis of variance, the anxious group thought negative events were more costly as compared to the depressed group. In contrast, the depressed group was higher in terms of negative causal attributions, overgeneralizing, selective abstraction, and negative views of the self, world, and future. The anxious‐depressed group showed an overall more negative pattern of cognitive biases than all other groups. Symptoms of anxiety and depression are distinguishable in terms of certain cognitive biases, and the co‐occurrence of symptoms is indicative of a particularly negative pattern of thinking. These findings have implications for intervention programs that could target specific cognitive biases. Highlights Are distinct patterns of cognitive biases evident among early adolescents with symptoms of anxiety, symptoms of depression, and co‐occurring symptoms of anxiety and depression? We collected self reports of cognitive biases. We also collected self reports of anxiety, depression, and cognitive biases, and created the following groups: 1) anxious; 2) depressed; 3) anxious‐depressed; 4) comparison. Symptoms of anxiety and depression are distinguishable in terms of certain cognitive biases, and symptom co‐occurrence may indicate a particularly maladaptive pattern of thinking.

Youth's school experience: Testing the role of symptoms of anxiety and co‐occurring symptoms of depression

“…Cognitively, symptoms of anxiety and depression can distort one's perception of themselves and their environment (Everaert, Duyck, & Koster, ; Eysenck, ). Thus, the negative school experiences documented in the current study could have resulted from cognitive bias, such that youth with symptoms of anxiety and depression perceived themselves as unworthy of high‐quality school experiences or failed to recognize their own ability to cope with the daily demands (Weeks, Coplan, & Ooi, ). Etiologically, because anxiety and depression symptoms are likely two dimensions of the same underlying disorder (Kircanski, LeMoult, Ordaz & Gotlib, ), symptoms of depression might have better reflected such an underlying disorder or the depressive dimension is more detrimental to youth's school experiences than the anxiety dimension.…”

Trigonelline through the Attenuation of Oxidative Stress Exerts Antidepressant- and Anxiolytic-Like Effects in a Mouse Model of Maternal Separation Stress

“…Anxiety is also a common mental disorder with high prevalence throughout the world [2]. It has been well determined that depression and anxiety signs co-occur in most of the patients [3].…”

What are They Thinking? Examining Complex Links Among Social Withdrawal, Maladaptive Cognitions, and Internalizing Problems in Children and Emerging Adults

“…Thus, in addition to being hypersensitive to threatening or dangerous stimuli, anxious individuals may also catastrophize the consequences of a negative event. Indeed, there is evidence that anxious children tend to rate negative events as being both more probable and more distressing than their non-anxious peers (e.g., Schofield et al, 2007;Vassilopoulos & Banerjee, 2012;Weeks, Coplan, & Ooi, 2017).…”

“…For example, when presented with ambiguous social scenarios, socially anxious individuals are more likely to interpret them in a negative or threatening manner as compared to their non-anxious counterparts (e.g., Amir et al, 1998;Creswell et al, 2011;Higa & Daleiden, 2008;Micco, Hirshfeld-Becker, Henin, & Ehrenreich-May, 2013;Vassilopoulos, 2006;Vassilopoulos & Banerjee, 2008;Weeks et al, 2017).…”

“…The degree of overlap between anxiety and depression has further complicated efforts to differentiate between the disorders. Indeed, it has been reported that anxiety and depression are strongly interrelated and often co-occur in clinical and non-clinical samples (e.g., Schniering & Rapee, 2004;Storch, Roberti, & Roth, 2004;Watson & Kendall, 1989;Zahn-Waxler et al, 2000;Weeks et al, 2017). For example, a metaanalysis of 21 population-based studies revealed that 10% to 69% of youth with anxiety had a comorbid depressive disorder, and 15% to 75% of depressed youth had a comorbid anxiety disorder (Angold, Costello, & Erkanli, 1999).…”