Cognitive bias modification as a strategy to reduce children's fears and concerns about the secondary school transition

ABSTRACT

Background and objectives: Cognitive Bias Modification of Interpretations (CBM-I) has emerged as an anxiety-reducing tool for children and adolescents, targeting maladaptive interpretations of everyday situations. This literature falls short of addressing whether the effects of CBM-I extend to worries about a real-life stressor, such as a school transition. Design: The study comprised a between-groups design comparing the effects of CBM-I to an active control (AC) intervention in children. Method: We recruited 38 children within two months of their primary–secondary school transition and investigated the capacity for multi-session, parent-administered CBM-I, compared to an AC condition, to modify cognitive style and reduce anxiety symptoms and school concerns. Results: While benign interpretations increased significantly and negative interpretations tended to decrease following CBM-I, both interventions significantly reduced anxiety symptoms and school concerns. Conclusions: These findings indicate that anxiety-reducing effects of CBM-I in children extend to a real life stressful event, but that equivalent anxiety reduction may be achieved through exposure to potentially worrying situations and parent–child interaction in the absence of bias modification.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognitive bias modification
• anxiety
• children
• parenting intervention
• school transition
• stressful life event

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the teachers and pupils of the participating schools, and the Transfer Support Team, for providing their work booklet from which we sourced the AC intervention.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the Nuffield Foundation [Grant number SGS/39173].