DOI: 10.5176/2251-1865_CBP13.73
Authors: Melissa E. Tamas, Rosa M. Poggesi, Lisa C. Hoyman, Brandi Schmeling, Robert D. Friedberg, Micaela Thordarson, Nina M. Pacholec
Abstract:
Children are evanescent beings and their cognitive processes are necessarily dynamic phenomena. Young patients’ belief systems are fluid and responsive to development. Accordingly, the anxiogenic nature of elementary school children’s cognitions differ from the kind of anxious thoughts adolescents carry. Remaining alert to these developmental vicissitudes informs the science and practice of clinical psychology. Accordingly, this paper reviews the nature of anxious cognitions in children and adolescents. Moreover, the implications of these developmental variations for research, assessment, and treatment are outlined.
The cognitive content and processes associated with children and adolescents diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Separation Anxiety Disorder, and Social Phobia are reviewed. Special emphasis is given to attentional biases and hypervigilance to threat cues. Similarities and differences in information processing among children and adolescents are outlined. In the second part of the paper, the implications of developmental variations in anxious patients’ cognitive content and processes are delineated. Special emphasis is placed on delivering developmentally sensitive Cognitive Behavior Therapy to youth by tailoring treatment and assessment to their level of cognitive, emotional, and social sophistication.
Keywords: development; child; anxiety; cognitive behavioral therapy
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