The effects of parents’ verbal information on  children’s self-focused attention with the moderating  effects of children’s fear of being negatively  evaluated

Background: Parents’ verbal transmission of information is shown to have an influence on children’s anxiety, which could be moderated by an attentional bias. This study investigated the link between parents’ verbal information transmission about a stranger and the children’s self-focused attention in the context of social anxiety and explored possible moderation of this effect by the children’s fear of being negatively evaluated. Methods: 75 9-to-14-year-old children visited a lab to perform a task, i.e. speaking in front of two strangers sequentially and a live screen on which they were projected. The parents’ verbal manipulation made one of the strangers seem safe and one of the strangers a threat to their evaluation and the looks to the live screen were measured between conditions. The children also filled out questionnaires on the Fear of Negative Child evaluation Results: Our analyses showed no significant result for the effect of parents’ verbal transmission of information on...Show moreBackground: Parents’ verbal transmission of information is shown to have an influence on children’s anxiety, which could be moderated by an attentional bias. This study investigated the link between parents’ verbal information transmission about a stranger and the children’s self-focused attention in the context of social anxiety and explored possible moderation of this effect by the children’s fear of being negatively evaluated. Methods: 75 9-to-14-year-old children visited a lab to perform a task, i.e. speaking in front of two strangers sequentially and a live screen on which they were projected. The parents’ verbal manipulation made one of the strangers seem safe and one of the strangers a threat to their evaluation and the looks to the live screen were measured between conditions. The children also filled out questionnaires on the Fear of Negative Child evaluation Results: Our analyses showed no significant result for the effect of parents’ verbal transmission of information on the children’s self-focused attention. Our analyses also showed no significant result for the fear of being negatively evaluated as a moderating factor. Conclusion: No significant effects were found for either the effect of parents’ verbal information on the children’s self-focused attention nor the moderating effects of the fear of being negatively evaluated. We hypothesize that this could be because parents’ verbal information may not be enough to create anxiety in the children or that our sample consisted of more confident children than average, because of a selection bias.Show less

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The effects of parents’ verbal information on children’s self-focused attention with the moderating effects of children’s fear of being negatively evaluated