The Course of Anxiety-Specific Cognitive Bias Following Daycare/Inpatient Treatment in Youths with Social Phobia and School Absenteeism

Social phobia (SP) is a common mental disorder in youth often accompanied by absence from school, which may require daycare or inpatient intervention (DC/IN). Objective: The present explorative study investigates changes in anxiety-specific implicit assumptions and interpretation bias following DC/IN. Methods: The study included 16 youths with SP (M age = 15.8 [SD = 1.24], females: 62.5 %) participating in DC/IN. We assessed the main outcomes using the Implicit Association Test and Affective Misattribution Procedure. Results: A large effect was shown for reducing implicit assumptions of feeling anxious (p =.142; eta(2)(p) =.171) and for reducing the implicit interpretation bias (p =.137; eta(2)(p) =.162). No change was indicated by effect size in implicit assumptions of feeling socially rejected (p =.649; eta(2)(p) =.016). Social phobia symptoms initially correlated with changes in implicit assumptions of feeling anxious (r =.45). Conclusion: Effect sizes indicate that implicit anxiety-specific assumptions and interpretation bias descriptively improved following DC/IN. Thus, DC/IN may lead to meaningful improvements of anxiety-specific cognition in some individuals with high SP symptoms, emphasizing the relevance of cognitive behavioral approaches in the treatment of SP. Several limitations are discussed.

Automated summary

This exploratory study investigates the changes in anxiety-specific implicit assumptions and interpretation bias in youths with social phobia after daycare or inpatient intervention. The results suggest that DC/IN may lead to meaningful improvements in anxiety-specific cognition in individuals with high social phobia symptoms, highlighting the relevance of cognitive behavioral approaches in the treatment of social phobia.