Childhood Exposure to Parental Threatening Behaviors and Anxiety Symptoms in a Community Sample of Young Adults: The Mediating Role of Cognitive Biases

摘要

Childhood exposure to parental threatening behaviors has been associated with a number of negative outcomes, including anxiety symptoms. However, research is lacking regarding the mechanisms that may explain these associations. One such mechanism may be cognitive biases, or more speci?cally, the degree to which individuals interpret neutral or ambiguous events as threatening (i.e., interpretive biases) and make negative judgments about their ability to cope with internal and external events (i.e., judgment biases). The purpose of this study was to examine the direct links between childhood exposure to parental threatening behaviors and anxiety symptoms in young adulthood, as well as the mediating role of cognitive biases in this association. Multiple mediator analyses in both normal (n = 643; mean age = 18.77 years, SD = 1.06; age range = 18–24;69%women)andanxiousgroups(n = 152;mean age = 18.64 years, SD = 0.97; age range = 18–23;80% women) revealed that childhood exposure to parental threatening behaviors signi?cantly predictedcurrent anxiety disordersymptoms.Inbothgroups,thisassociationwasfully mediated by participants' judgment biases. The mediated effect was signi?cant after controlling for negative affectivity. Overall, the?ndings of this study suggest that childhood exposure to parental threatening behaviors may set the stageforthedevelopmentofjudgmentbiases,which,inturn, may increase the risk for anxiety symptoms. These?ndings highlight the potential utility of targeting judgment biases in interventions for anxiety-related problems.