NCJ Number
225244
Journal
Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry Volume: 39 Issue: 4 Dated: December 2008 Pages: 436-450
Date Published
December 2008
Length
15 pages
Annotation
In this study, a new measure assessing anxiety-related perceived control in an indirect way, the Implicit Association Procedure (IAP) was tested and compared with the direct measure of perceived control, the Anxiety Control Questionnaire for Children (ACQ-C).
Abstract
Results indicate that higher anxious children have lower perceived control over anxiety-related events than lower anxious children, on both the indirect and direct measure. Anxiety disorders are among the most common psychiatric disorders in children. So far, all studies of perceived control and anxiety disorders have been based on questionnaires like the Anxiety Control Questionnaire for Children (ACQ-C). A disadvantage of direct measures is that they may be biased by limited introspective abilities and strategic processes. To overcome these shortcomings, tasks have been developed that measure the construct of interest without asking the participant directly. One such measurement, the Implicit Association Procedure (IAP) is based on the Evaluative Movement Assessment (EMA, 2005). In the EMA, the intrinsic meaning of the response is used, based on “automatic movement tendencies.” Following this, in the IAP, it is assumed that participants react faster with a movement towards themselves when confronted with concepts that belong to “self.” In this study, the IAP was adapted to measure anxiety-related perceived control in an indirect way. IAP data of 33 non-selected children were compared to the direct measure, ACQ-C. Tables, figures, and references