title: Threat-related automatic associations in socially anxious adolescents.
abstract: Threat-related automatic associations are assumed to play an important role in the development and maintenance of social anxiety. We tested whether threat-related automatic associations are already evident in high socially anxious adolescents, by comparing a group of adolescents (age 12-15) with subclinical levels of social anxiety (n=170) to a group of low socially anxious adolescents (n=193). We used a single-target implicit association test to measure threat-related automatic associations to social cues. Results showed that indeed in high socially anxious adolescents social cues automatically elicited relatively strong threat-related associations. Supporting the relevance of differentiating between automatic and more explicit measures, both automatic and explicit associations were independently associated with adolescents' level of self-reported social anxiety. The present pattern of findings is not only consistent with the view that automatic and more deliberate threat-related associations are both involved in the etiology of social-anxiety symptoms, but also suggest that both types of associations are proper targets for early intervention programs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands. e.de.hullu@rug.nl
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Hullu
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: de Jong
authors.forename: B Esther
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Sportel
authors.forename: Maaike H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Nauta
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001244:Association; D002648:Child; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D012649:Self Concept; D012938:Social Perception