Biases in attention, interpretation, memory, and associations in children with varying levels of spider fear: Inter-relations and prediction of behavior.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Cognitive theories suggest that cognitive biases may be related and together influence the anxiety response. However, little is known about the interrelations of cognitive bias tasks and whether they allow for an improved prediction of fear-related behavior in addition to self-reports. This study simultaneously addressed several types of cognitive biases in children, to investigate attention bias, interpretation bias, memory bias and fear-related associations, their interrelations and the prediction of behavior. METHODS: Eighty-one children varying in their levels of spider fear completed the Spider Anxiety and Disgust Screening for Children and performed two Emotional Stroop tasks, a Free Recall task, an interpretation task including size and distance indication, an Affective Priming Task, and a Behavioral Assessment Test. RESULTS: We found an attention bias, interpretation bias, and fear-related associations, but no evidence for a memory bias. The biases showed little overlap. Attention bias, interpretation bias, and fear-related associations predicted unique variance in avoidance of spiders. Interpretation bias and fear-related associations remained significant predictors, even when self-reported fear was included as a predictor. LIMITATIONS: Children were not seeking help for their spider fear and were not tested on clinical levels of spider phobia. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to find evidence that different cognitive biases each predict unique variance in avoidance behavior. Furthermore, it is also the first study in which we found evidence for a relation between fear of spiders and size and distance indication. We showed that this bias is distinct from other cognitive biases.

The significance of reciprocal and unilateral friendships for peer victimization in adolescence.

The present study examined to what extent the number of friends and their social and personal characteristics were related to peer victimization in adolescence. Participants were 2,180 adolescents (1,143 girls), aged 11-18 (M = 14.2), who were classified as victims, bully-victims, or non-involved (i.e., adolescents who neither bullied others nor were victimized by others). Three types of friends were distinguished: reciprocal friends, desired friends (who were unilaterally nominated by a target adolescent) and choosing friends (who unilaterally nominated a target adolescent). Between-group comparisons of the three types of friends showed that victims had fewer reciprocal and choosing friends than non-involved adolescents. Compared to bully-victims and non-involved adolescents, victims had reciprocal friends who were socially less well adjusted. No differences existed with respect to the characteristics of the desired friends. In general, victims' choosing friends scored less positive on the personal characteristics than bully-victims' and non-involved adolescents' choosing friends. Within-group comparisons revealed that victims' reciprocal friends showed lower adjustment than victims' desired friends, but higher adjustment than their choosing friends. For bully-victims and non-involved adolescents, such differences between their three types of friends were largely absent. Our findings seem to suggest that victims' reciprocal friendships may not be totally default associations and that out of all possible friends, victims might tend to select those who score most positive on personal or social factors.