Threat To Children Research Articles

Negative Co-Parenting and Children's Adjustment: The Role of Children's Appraisals and Triangulation

Existing literature has outlined how negative co-parenting could affect children's ad-justment through children's subjective appraisals and triangulation. However, no stud-ies have investigated whether children's cognitive appraisals and two distinct forms of children's triangulation (feelings and involvement) could be serial mediators of the associations between negative co-parenting and children's adjustment. Mediation analyses were performed using a sample of 125 Italian families of children aged 8-14. Results showed that negative co-parenting was linked to children's threat and self-blame appraisals. Data also suggested how both children's subjective appraisals (threat and self-blame) were associated with the two forms of children's triangulation (direct involvement and subjective triangulation). Finally, the results indicated two specific pathways for the serial mediation of children's cognitive appraisals and triangulation in the association between negative co-parenting and children's adjustment. On the one hand, subjective triangulation predicts children's internalizing behaviors. On the other hand, triangulation involvement promotes children's externalizing behaviors. .

Cyber Security Awareness Model (Among Children) Using Protection Motivation Theory: A Review

In recent times, there has been a growing concern regarding children's cyber security due to their increased access to the Internet and exposure to various online threats. This issue has garnered significant attention as it poses a considerable risk to children's safety and well-being. As a result, research on children's cyber security awareness has become an area of rapid growth. To contribute to the understanding of this topic, this paper aims to review the latest findings regarding the application of the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) in developing a Cyber Security Awareness Model for children. The Protection Motivation Theory offers a valuable framework for understanding individuals' motivations and decision-making processes regarding protective behaviors in the face of perceived threats. By applying PMT to children's cyber security awareness, researchers can gain insights into the factors that influence children's motivation to engage in protective actions while navigating the online environment. This review paper will explore and analyze recent studies that have employed the Protection Motivation Theory in developing Cyber Security Awareness Models tailored specifically for children. The models derived from PMT can provide a deeper understanding of children's threat appraisal, including their perception of the severity and vulnerability to online risks. Moreover, the coping appraisal aspect of PMT allows researchers to examine children's evaluation of the effectiveness and feasibility of protective actions, such as employing secure passwords, avoiding sharing personal information, and recognizing potential online dangers. By synthesizing the most recent research findings, this paper aims to contribute to the knowledge base on children's cyber security awareness. Understanding how the Protection Motivation Theory can be applied in the context of children's cyber security will enable the development of effective interventions and educational programs to enhance children's online safety. Ultimately, the goal is to empower children with the necessary skills and knowledge to protect themselves from online threats and make informed decisions while navigating the digital world.

Conflict Appraisals and Trauma Symptoms in Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence.

Children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) are at risk for posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and alterations in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning. The current study investigated children's threat and self-blame appraisals about parental conflict as potential mechanisms leading to these adverse outcomes. Parent-child relationships were also examined. The sample consisted of 119 10-year-olds and their mothers who were recruited from the community as part of a larger study of IPV. Children's reports of IPV directed at their mother in the past year were not associated with PTSS; however, IPV exposure was associated with attenuated cortisol output in response to a social stressor. IPV exposure was also associated with greater threat appraisals and poorer quality parent-child relationships. These results provide further evidence that witnessing IPV is threatening for children, has negative consequences for parent-child relationships, and can impact children's HPA axis functioning.

Paternal expressed emotion influences psychobiological indicators of threat and safety learning in daughters: A preliminary study.

This preliminary study examined the association of children's anxiety, paternal expressed emotion (EE), and their interaction with psychophysiological indices of children's threat and safety learning. Participants included 24 father-daughter dyads. Daughters (ages 8-13 years, 100% Latina) self-reported their anxiety levels and completed a differential threat conditioning and extinction paradigm, during which psychophysiological responding was collected. Fathers completed a Five-Minute Speech Sample, from which paternal EE (i.e., criticism, emotional overinvolvement) was assessed. Anxiety-dependent associations emerged between paternal EE and individual differences in daughters' psychophysiological responding to safety signals during threat conditioning. Paternal EE was positively associated with psychophysiological responding to safety in daughters with high and mean, but not low, levels of anxiety. Although previous work suggests that chronic harsh maternal parenting is a potential risk factor for children's general threat and safety learning, these preliminary findings implicate milder forms of negative parenting behavior in fathers, particularly for highly anxious children.

Corporal Punishment and Elevated Neural Response to Threat in Children.

Spanking remains common around the world, despite evidence linking corporal punishment to detrimental child outcomes. This study tested whether children (Mage =11.60) who were spanked (N=40) exhibited altered neural function in response to stimuli that suggest the presence of an environmental threat compared to children who were not spanked (N=107). Children who were spanked exhibited greater activation in multiple regions of the medial and lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), including dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, dorsomedial PFC, bilateral frontal pole, and left middle frontal gyrus in response to fearful relative to neutral faces compared to children who were not spanked. These findings suggest that spanking may alter neural responses to environmental threats in a manner similar to more severe forms of maltreatment.

Children's emotion perception in context: The role of caregiver touch and relationship quality.

From early in development, attention to emotional facial expressions is biased toward threat. We examined whether caregiver availability affects children's emotion perception and possibly reduces threat bias. In 3 experiments, 4- and 5-year-old children were asked to detect threatening (angry) and nonthreatening (happy) facial expressions on a touch screen. Children completed the emotion detection task either with or without their caregiver sitting next to them on a bench, first using a between-subjects design where each child completed the task once (Experiment 1; N = 40) and then using a within-subjects design where each child completed the task twice (Experiment 2; N = 20). In Experiments 1 and 2, mere caregiver presence had no effect on children's emotion detection or threat bias. In Experiment 3, we increased the salience of caregiver presence by having children complete the task while holding hands with their caregiver (Experiment 3; N = 45). In dyads reporting high quality child-caregiver relationships, handholding facilitated detection of happy faces and significantly reduced children's threat bias. These findings suggest that caregiver touch impacts emotion perception in children as a function of relationship quality and that caregiver context plays a role in shaping children's responses to their social environment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Needle Fear and Threat in Children

Needle Fear and Threat in Children

Needle Fear and Threat in Children

Needle Fear and Threat in Children

Children's Appraisals and Involvement in Interparental Conflict: Do They Contribute Independently to Child Adjustment?

This study examines concurrent and prospective relations between children's threat and self-blame appraisals of interparental conflict, their involvement in interparental conflict, and their internalizing and externalizing problems. 539 children aged 7-10 years old and their mothers participated in the study. They completed 3 assessments spaced 6 months apart. At each assessment, children reported on their threat and self-blame appraisals of interparental conflict, their conflict involvement, and their internalizing and externalizing problems. Mothers also reported on children's internalizing and externalizing problems. In concurrent analyses, threat and self-blame appraisals and conflict involvement were each positively and independently associated with children's adjustment problems. Threat related more strongly to internalizing problems than to externalizing problems; self-blame related more strongly to externalizing problems than to internalizing problems. Threat appraisals were associated with children's adjustment problems prospectively, but self-blame appraisals and conflict involvement were not. Although threat and self-blame appraisals and conflict involvement may each contribute to children's concurrent adjustment problems, threat appraisals appear most salient to their future adjustment problems.

Measuring attentional biases for threat in children and adults.

Investigators have long been interested in the human propensity for the rapid detection of threatening stimuli. However, until recently, research in this domain has focused almost exclusively on adult participants, completely ignoring the topic of threat detection over the course of development. One of the biggest reasons for the lack of developmental work in this area is likely the absence of a reliable paradigm that can measure perceptual biases for threat in children. To address this issue, we recently designed a modified visual search paradigm similar to the standard adult paradigm that is appropriate for studying threat detection in preschool-aged participants. Here we describe this new procedure. In the general paradigm, we present participants with matrices of color photographs, and ask them to find and touch a target on the screen. Latency to touch the target is recorded. Using a touch-screen monitor makes the procedure simple and easy, allowing us to collect data in participants ranging from 3 years of age to adults. Thus far, the paradigm has consistently shown that both adults and children detect threatening stimuli (e.g., snakes, spiders, angry/fearful faces) more quickly than neutral stimuli (e.g., flowers, mushrooms, happy/neutral faces). Altogether, this procedure provides an important new tool for researchers interested in studying the development of attentional biases for threat.

Measuring Attentional Biases for Threat in Children and Adults

Investigators have long been interested in the human propensity for the rapid detection of threatening stimuli. However, until recently, research in this domain has focused almost exclusively on adult participants, completely ignoring the topic of threat detection over the course of development. One of the biggest reasons for the lack of developmental work in this area is likely the absence of a reliable paradigm that can measure perceptual biases for threat in children. To address this issue, we recently designed a modified visual search paradigm similar to the standard adult paradigm that is appropriate for studying threat detection in preschool-aged participants. Here we describe this new procedure. In the general paradigm, we present participants with matrices of color photographs, and ask them to find and touch a target on the screen. Latency to touch the target is recorded. Using a touch-screen monitor makes the procedure simple and easy, allowing us to collect data in participants ranging from 3 years of age to adults. Thus far, the paradigm has consistently shown that both adults and children detect threatening stimuli (e.g., snakes, spiders, angry/fearful faces) more quickly than neutral stimuli (e.g., flowers, mushrooms, happy/neutral faces). Altogether, this procedure provides an important new tool for researchers interested in studying the development of attentional biases for threat.

Interparental conflict, community violence, and child problems: making sense of counterintuitive findings.

This research examines children's exposure to community violence as a potential moderator of the link between destructive interparental conflict (IPC) and child adjustment problems. In addition, this research extends the literature by evaluating children's threat appraisals of IPC as a process that might help explain moderator effects. Participants were 539 mothers and their 7-10-year-old children. Children reported on their exposure to community violence and IPC, their threat appraisals of IPC, and their adjustment outcomes. Mothers reported on children's adjustment outcomes as well. Exposure to community violence mitigated the association between IPC and children's self-reported internalizing problems. Children's threat appraisals helped explain this effect. Exposure to high levels of community violence may weaken the extent to which children feel threatened by IPC, which may attenuate the relation between children's exposure to IPC and their self-reported internalizing problems.

Children's appraisals of conflict, beliefs about aggression, and externalizing problems in families characterized by severe intimate partner violence.

This research examined whether children's threat and self-blame appraisals regarding interparental conflict and their beliefs about the justifiability of aggression predicted children's externalizing problems in families in which there had been recent severe intimate partner violence (IPV). Participants were 106 children (62 boys, 44 girls) aged 7 to 10 and their mothers. Families in which there had been recent severe IPV were recruited during their stay at a domestic violence shelter. Children completed measures of threat, self-blame, beliefs about the justifiability of aggression, and externalizing problems. Mothers completed a measure of children's externalizing problems. Measures were completed at 3 time points, spaced 6 months apart. In multilevel modeling analyses, threat appraisals and beliefs about the justifiability of aggression were positively associated with children's reports of externalizing problems concurrently, and self-blame appraisals were positively associated with mothers' reports of externalizing problems concurrently. In prospective analyses, beliefs about the justifiability of aggression at 1 time point were positively associated with children's reports of externalizing problems 6 months later. The results provide partial support for the modified cognitive-contextual framework.

Parental and Family Factors as Predictors of Threat Bias in Anxious Youth.

The present study examined the relative predictive value of parental anxiety, parents' expectation of child threat bias, and family dysfunction on child's threat bias in a clinical sample of anxious youth. Participants (N = 488) were part of the Child/Adolescent Anxiety Multi-modal study (CAMS), ages 7-17 years (M = 10.69; SD = 2.80). Children met diagnostic criteria for generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety and/or social phobia. Children and caregivers completed questionnaires assessing child threat bias, child anxiety, parent anxiety and family functioning. Child age, child anxiety, parental anxiety, parents' expectation of child's threat bias and child-reported family dysfunction were significantly associated with child threat bias. Controlling for child's age and anxiety, regression analyses indicated that parents' expectation of child's threat bias and child-reported family dysfunction were significant positive predictors of child's self-reported threat bias. Findings build on previous literature by clarifying parent and family factors that appear to play a role in the development or maintenance of threat bias and may inform etiological models of child anxiety.

Perception of Threat in Children With Social Phobia: Comparison to Nonsocially Anxious Children Before and After Treatment

The present study investigated interpretation bias and reduced evidence for danger (RED) bias in 49 children with social phobia and 49 nonsocially anxious children between the ages of 8 and 14 years, using an ambiguous stories task. A posttreatment and follow-up measure was included for 26 of the socially phobic children to examine whether there would be a change in interpretation and RED bias after a 12-week behavior therapy program. Ambiguous scenarios were presented sentence by sentence. Participants gave interpretations and fear ratings after each sentence, and they rated negative emotions after each complete scenario. Compared to the nonsocially anxious children, children with social phobia displayed both a RED bias and an interpretation bias. After the treatment program, the children with social phobia displayed a reduced tendency to make biased interpretations, but there were no significant posttreatment changes in the RED bias. At 1 year follow-up there was a significant reduction in both interpretation and RED bias and clinical children no longer differed from nonsocially anxious controls.

Experimental Modification of Interpretation Bias about Animal Fear in Young Children: Effects on Cognition, Avoidance Behavior, Anxiety Vulnerability, and Physiological Responding

This study investigated the effects of experimentally modifying interpretation biases for children's cognitions, avoidance behavior, anxiety vulnerability, and physiological responding. Sixty-seven children (6–11 years) were randomly assigned to receive a positive or negative interpretation bias modification procedure to induce interpretation biases toward or away from threat about ambiguous situations involving Australian marsupials. Children rapidly learned to select outcomes of ambiguous situations, which were congruent with their assigned condition. Furthermore, following positive modification, children's threat biases about novel ambiguous situations significantly decreased, whereas threat biases significantly increased after negative modification. In response to a stress-evoking behavioral avoidance test, positive modification attenuated behavioral avoidance compared to negative modification. However, no significant effects of bias modification on anxiety vulnerability or physiological responses to this stress-evoking Behavioral Avoidance Task were observed.

Experimental modification of interpretation bias regarding social and animal fear in children

Using an experimental bias modification task, an interpretation bias towards or away from threat was induced about animal or social situations in a sample of 103 children split into a young (7–10 years) and old age group (11–15 years). Children rapidly learned to select outcomes of ambiguous situations which were congruent with their assigned modification condition. Following positive modification, children's threat interpretation biases significantly decreased, while threat biases increased (non-significantly) after negative modification. Bias modification effects also varied as a function of age with children appearing particularly vulnerable to acquiring biases about stimuli that were congruent with the normative fears for their age group. Weak age-related modification-congruent effects on younger but not older children's anxiety vulnerability in response to a behavioral task were also observed. However, no consistent effects of bias modification on avoidance behavior were found.

Children's adjustment problems in families characterized by men's severe violence toward women: Does other family violence matter?

Objective This research examined whether additional forms of family violence (partner-child aggression, mother-child aggression, and women's intimate partner violence [IPV]) contribute to children's adjustment problems in families characterized by men's severe violence toward women. Methods Participants were 258 children and their mothers recruited from domestic violence shelters. Mothers and children completed measures of men's IPV, women's IPV, partner-child aggression, and mother-child aggression. Mothers provided reports of children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems; children provided reports of their appraisals of threat in relation to interparent conflict. Results After controlling for sociodemographics and men's IPV: (1) each of the additional forms of family violence (partner-child aggression, mother-child aggression, and women's IPV) was associated with children's externalizing problems; (2) partner-child aggression was associated with internalizing problems; and (3) partner-child aggression was associated with children's threat appraisals. The relation of mother-child aggression to externalizing problems was stronger for boys than for girls; gender differences were not observed for internalizing problems or threat appraisals. Conclusions Men's severe IPV seldom occurs in the absence of other forms of family violence, and these other forms appear to contribute to children's adjustment problems. Parent-child aggression, and partner-child aggression in particular, are especially important. Systematic efforts to identify shelter children who are victims of parental violence seem warranted. Practice implications Men's severe IPV seldom occurs in the absence of other forms of family violence (partner-child aggression, mother-child aggression, and women's IPV), and these different forms of family violence all contribute to children's adjustment problems. Treatment programs for children who come to domestic violence shelters should address these different forms of family violence, especially parent-child aggression.

Threat-based cognitive biases in anxious children: Comparison with non-anxious children before and after cognitive behavioural treatment

Attention and interpretation biases for threat stimuli were assessed in 19 anxious (ANX) children before and after cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), and compared with responses from 19 non-anxious (NA) control children collected over the same period. Attentional bias was assessed using a picture version of the visual probe task with threat, neutral and pleasant pictures. Threat interpretation bias was assessed using both a homographs task in which children used homograph words in a sentence and their neutral or threatening meaning was assessed, and a stories task in which children rated their negative emotion, danger judgments, and influencing ability in ambiguous situations. ANX children showed attention biases towards threat on the visual probe task and threat interpretation biases on the stories task but not the homographs task at pre-treatment in comparison with NA children. Following treatment, ANX children's threat interpretation biases as assessed on the stories task reduced significantly to within levels comparable to NA children. However, ANX children continued to show larger attentional biases towards threat than pleasant pictures on the visual probe task at post-treatment, whereas NA children did not show attentional biases. Moreover, a residual threat interpretation style on the stories task at post-treatment was associated with higher anxiety symptoms in both ANX and NA children.

Predictors of Threat to Self-Appraisals for Children from Divorced Homes

This study examined the contribution of variables in the domains of event, child, and family contextual characteristics to predict children's threat to self-appraisals (negative self-evaluation; negative evaluation by others; rejection from others) for negative events. One hundred and forty-three children ages 8–12 and their mothers who experienced divorce participated in two assessments separated by 5.5 months. Children made appraisal ratings for two events. The domain of child characteristics, assessed at Time 1, uniquely predicted Time 2 threat to self-appraisals. Time 2 event characteristics were significantly associated with Time 2 threat to self-appraisals. The family contextual characteristics domain was not a unique predictor. Implications of these findings are discussed.