Anxiety and cognitive performance in adolescent women with disruptive behavior disorders.

Abstract

Comparing 36 disruptive behavior-disordered and 40 normal female adolescents, we found higher levels of anxiety and poorer performance on a measure of verbal fluency in the clinical sample. No group differences were found on a nonverbal measure of reflectivity nor on a measure of interpersonal cognitive problem solving. Nor was evidence found for an hypothesized anxiety-related performance decrement among disruptive behavior-disordered youth. However, anxiety induction facilitated performance across groups on interpersonal cognitive problem solving.