Threat Appraisal and Pediatric Anxiety: Proof of Concept of a Latent Variable Approach

• Published in: Clinical psychological science Vol. 12; no. 4; pp. 772 - 781
• Main Authors: Bernstein, Rachel A., Smith, Ashley R., Kitt, Elizabeth R., Cardinale, Elise M., Harrewijn, Anita, Abend, Rany, Michalska, Kalina J., Pine, Daniel S., Kircanski, Katharina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.07.2024
• Subjects: children and adolescents; anxiety disorders; threat appraisal; fear conditioning; ecological momentary assessment; latent-variable analysis; latent variable analysis
• ISSN: 2167-7026; 2167-7034; 2167-7034
• DOI: 10.1177/21677026231190349

Elevated threat appraisal is a postulated neurodevelopmental mechanism of anxiety disorders. However, laboratory-assessed threat appraisals are task-specific and subject to measurement error. We used latent-variable analysis to integrate youths’ self-reported threat appraisals across different experimental tasks; we next examined associations with pediatric anxiety and behavioral- and psychophysiological-task indices. Ninety-two youths ages 8 to 17 (M = 13.07 years, 65% female), including 51 with a primary anxiety disorder and 41 with no Axis I diagnosis, completed up to eight threat-exposure tasks. Anxiety symptoms were assessed using questionnaires and ecological momentary assessment. Appraisals both before and following threat exposures evidenced shared variance across tasks. Derived factor scores for threat appraisal were associated significantly with anxiety symptoms and variably with task indices; findings were comparable with task-specific measures and had several advantages. Results support an overarching construct of threat appraisal linked with pediatric anxiety, providing groundwork for more robust laboratory-based measurement.