Cognitive Errors, Anxiety, and Depression in Japanese Children and Adolescents

摘要

Interrelationships among cognitive errors, anxiety, and depression in Japanese chil-dren and adolescents were investigated. A community sample of Japanese children and adolescents (N = 819: 410 boys and 409 girls; aged 8-15 years) completed the Children's Cognitive Error Scale (CCES) and self-report measures of anxiety and depression. The results of multi-group confirmatory factor analysis supported the single factor structure of the CCES. The internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the CCES were high. The results of correlation analyses indicated that cognitive errors were related to anxiety and depressive symptoms. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that cognitive errors were strongly related to anxiety symptoms after controlling for age, gender, and depressive symptoms. However, regression analysis of depression indicated that the effect of anxiety symptoms was the largest of all predictors. These findings are discussed with respect to designing interventions for cognitive errors of Japanese children and adolescents.