Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T22:50:47.634Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Negative Cognitive Errors in Youth: Specificity to Anxious and Depressive Symptoms and Age Differences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2014

Judith S. Schwartz  and
Marija Maric
Judith S. Schwartz
Affiliation:
PEP Psychologen, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Marija Maric*
Affiliation:
University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
*
Reprint requests to Marija Maric, Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Weesperplein 4, 1018 XA, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background: Negative cognitive errors are important in the etiology and treatment of youth internalizing problems, but less is known about their unique relations with anxiety and depression. Aims: The major purpose of this study was to examine associations between distinct negative cognitive errors and anxiety and depression in youth. Method: In a community sample of children and adolescents (aged 9–17; N = 278) negative cognitive errors were assessed using the revised version of the Children's Negative Cognitive Error Questionnaire (CNCEQ-R). Anxiety and depression were assessed with the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children and Children's Depression Inventory, respectively. Results: The strongest predictors of anxiety were the negative cognitive errors “underestimation of the ability to cope” and “mind reading”. The strongest predictors of depression were the errors “selective abstraction” and “overgeneralizing”, with the first error explaining most variance. Analyses of age effects showed that, in comparison to adolescents, children reported higher scores on the total CNCEQ-R score, and on the errors “overgeneralizing”, “personalizing”, and “mind reading”. Conclusions: The findings underscore the importance of researching the role of distinct cognitive processing in youth with anxiety and depression and further development of the CNCEQ-R. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.

Keywords

Negative cognitive errorsanxietydepressionyouthCNCEQ-R
Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 43 , Issue 5 , September 2015 , pp. 526 - 537
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alfano, C. A., Beidel, D. C. and Turner, S. M. (2002). Cognition in childhood anxiety: conceptual, developmental, and methodological issues. Clinical Psychology Review, 22, 1209–1238.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T. (1976). Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., Emery, G. and Greenberg, R. (1985). Anxiety Disorders and Phobias: a cognitive perspective. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Braet, C. and Timbremont, B. (2002). Children's Depression Inventory - Dutch version. Amsterdam: Harcourt Test Publishers.Google Scholar
Clark, L. A. and Watson, D. (1991). Tripartite model of anxiety and depression: psychometric evidence and taxonomic implications. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100, 316–336.Google Scholar
Cole, D. A. and Turner, J. E. (1993). Models of cognitive mediation and moderation in child depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102, 271–281.Google Scholar
Curry, J., Rohde, P., Simons, A., Silva, S., Vitiello, B., Kratochvil, C., et al. (2006). Predictors and moderators of acute outcome in the Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS). Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 45, 1427–1439.Google Scholar
Epkins, C. C. (1996). Cognitive specificity and affective confounding in social anxiety and dysphoria in children. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioural Assessment, 18, 83–101.Google Scholar
Field, A. (2009). Discovering Statistics Using SPSS (3rd edn). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Flouri, E. and Panourgia, C. (2011). Adverse life events and emotional and behavioural problems in adolescence: the role of non-verbal cognitive ability and negative cognitive errors. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 39, 695–709.Google Scholar
Garber, J. and Weersing, R. V. (2010). Comorbidity of anxiety and depression in youth: implications for treatment and prevention. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 17, 293–306.Google Scholar
Karakaya, I., Coskun, A., Agaoglu, B., Oc, O. Y., Cakin Memik, N., Sismanlar, S. G., et al. (2007). The reliability and validity of the Children's Negative Cognitive Error Questionnaire. Turkish Journal of Psychiatry, 18, 155–162.Google Scholar
Kingery, J. N., Kepley, H. O., Ginsburg, G. S., Walkup, J. T., Silva, S. G., Hoyle, R. H., et al. (2009). Factor structure and psychometric properties of the Children's Negative Cognitive Error Questionnaire with a clinically depressed adolescent sample. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 38, 768–780.Google Scholar
Kovacs, M. (1992). Children's Depression Inventory. New York: Multi-Health Systems.Google Scholar
Leitenberg, H., Yost, L. W. and Carroll-Wilson, M. (1986). Negative cognitive errors in children: questionnaire development, normative data, and comparisons between children with and without self-reported symptoms of depression, low self-esteem, and evaluation anxiety. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 54, 528–536.Google Scholar
Lefebvre, M. F. (1981). Cognitive distortion and cognitive errors in depressed psychiatric and low back pain patients. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 49, 517–525.Google Scholar
March, J. S., Parker, J., Sullivan, K. B. A., Stallings, P. and Conners, K. C. (1997). The Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC): factor structure, reliability, and validity. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36, 554–565.Google Scholar
Maric, M., Heyne, D. A., Van Widenfelt, B. M. and Westenberg, P. M. (2011). Distorted cognitive processing in youth: the structure of negative cognitive errors and their associations with anxiety. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 35, 11–20.Google Scholar
Marien, W. and Bell, D. J. (2004). Anxiety- and depression-related cognition in children: development and evaluation of a cognition measure. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 33, 717–730.Google Scholar
Messer, S. C., Kempton, T., Van Hasselt, V. B., Null, J. A. and Bukstein, O. G. (1994). Cognitive distortions and adolescent affective disorder: validity of the CNCEQ in an inpatient sample. Behaviour Modification, 118, 339–351.Google Scholar
Muris, P., Merckelbach, H., Ollendick, T., King, N. and Bogie, N. (2002). Three traditional and three new childhood anxiety questionnaires: their reliability and validity in a normal adolescent sample. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 40, 753–772.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ostrander, R., Nay, W. R., Anderson, D. and Jensen, J. (1995). Developmental and symptom specificity of hopelessness, cognitive errors, and attributional bias among clinic referred youth. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 26, 97–112Google Scholar
Silverman, W. K., Kurtines, W. M., Ginsburg, G. S., Weems, C. F., Rabian, B. and Serafini, L. T. (1999). Contingency management, self-control, and education support in the treatment of childhood phobic disorders: a randomized clinical trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 67, 675–687.Google Scholar
Stallard, P. (2005). A Clinician's Guide to Think Good - Feel Good: using CBT with children and young people. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Stewart, S., Kennard, B., Lee, P., Hughes, C., Mayes, T., Emslie, G., et al. (2004). A cross-cultural investigation of cognitions and depressive symptoms in adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113, 248–257.Google Scholar
Weems, C. F., Berman, S. L., Silverman, W. K. and Saavedra, L. M. (2001). Cognitive errors in youth with anxiety disorders: the linkages between negative cognitive errors and anxious symptoms. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 25, 559–575.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yurica, C. L. and DiTomasso, R. A. (2005). Cognitive distortions. In Freeman, A., Felgoise, S. H., Nezu, C. M., Nezu, A. M. and Reinecke, M. (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies (pp.117–122). New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.