Cognitive Prerequisites in Development of Childhood Anxiety: An Integrative Literature Review and Thematic Analysis.

It has been suggested that cognitive development affects the emotional experience of children, including anxiety. However, an evidence review is needed to extract cognitive prerequisites that contribute to the development of anxiety in children. The purpose of the study is to explore evidence on cognitive prerequisites involved in experiencing anxiety in children. Four electronic databases of Scopus, OVID-PsycINFO, PubMed, and ScienceDirect were comprehensively searched for 1900 to 2018, yielding 4,618 articles. According to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) and inclusion and exclusion criteria, 25 articles were found as eligible. The analysis of literature identified 3 themes, including threat perception, future thinking, and generalization. It is suggested that these cognitive abilities may underlie anxiety. These results have important implications for better understanding the effect of cognitive prerequisites in anxiety phenomena and also could shed light on the explanation of anxiety in some disorders characterized by deficits in cognitive development.

Internet-Delivered Versus Face-to-Face Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Anxiety Disorders: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Over the last 20 years, internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy (ICBT) has been tested in a large number of randomized controlled trials, often with positive results. However, it is not widely known about the efficacy of ICBT as compared to face-to-face cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). METHODS: In the present systematic review and meta-analysis, ICBT for treatment of anxiety disorders was directly compared to face- to-face CBT within the same trial. This study aimed to reinvestigate the effect of ICBT compared to face-to-face CBT for anxiety disorders. A total of 8 studies out of the 236 articles screened met all the inclusion criteria. The included studies targeting five different anxiety disorders, social anxiety disorder, adolescent anxiety, panic disorder, spider phobia, and fear of public speaking, had been carried out in Australia, Spain, and Sweden. The total number of participants was 348 in ICBT and 316 in face-to-face conditions. RESULTS: The results of our meta-analysis are interesting both from theoretical and practical standpoints, which showed a pooled effect size posttreatment with Hedges' g = 0.01 (95% CI: -0.16 to 0.18). CONCLUSIONS: ICBT and face-to-face CBT created equivalent overall effects. in treatment of anxiety disorders. Since there have been similar systematic reviews about anxiety disorders so far, and in majority of them, ICBT has not been compared against face-to-face treatment. More research is needed to establish the general equivalence of the two treatment formats. Also, understanding what makes ICBT work is a challenge for future research.

Effect of Play-based Therapy on Meta-cognitive and Behavioral Aspects of Executive Function: A Randomized, Controlled, Clinical Trial on the Students With Learning Disabilities.

INTRODUCTION: Although the effect of educational methods on executive function (EF) is well known, training this function by a playful method is debatable. The current study aimed at investigating if a play-based intervention is effective on metacognitive and behavioral skills of EF in students with specific learning disabilities. METHODS: In the current randomized, clinical trial, 49 subjects within the age range of 7 to 11 years with specific learning disabilities were randomly assigned into the intervention (25 subjects; mean age 8.5±1.33 years) and control (24 subjects; mean age 8.7±1.03 years) groups. Subjects in the intervention group received EF group training based on playing activities; subjects in the control group received no intervention. The behavior rating inventory of executive function (BRIEF) was administered to evaluate the behavioral and cognitive aspects of EF. The duration of the intervention was 6 hours per week for 9 weeks. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to compare mean changes (before and after) in the BRIEF scores between the groups. RESULTS: The assumptions of multivariate analysis of covariance were examined. After controlling pre-test conditions, the intervention and control groups scored significantly differently on both the metacognition (P=0.002; effect size=0.20) and behavior regulation indices (P=0.01; effect size=0.12) of BRIEF. CONCLUSION: Play-based therapy is effective on the metacognitive and behavioral aspects of EF in students with specific learning disabilities. Professionals can use play-based therapy rather than educational approaches in clinical practice to enhance EF skills.

The effect of childhood bilingualism on episodic and semantic memory tasks.

Kormi-Nouri, Moniri and Nilsson (2003) demonstrated that Swedish-Persian bilingual children recalled at a higher level than Swedish monolingual children, when they were tested using Swedish materials. The present study was designed to examine the bilingual advantage of children who use different languages in their everyday life but have the same cultural background and live in their communities in the same way as monolingual children. In four experiments, 488 monolingual and bilingual children were compared with regard to episodic and semantic memory tasks. In experiments 1 and 2 there were 144 boys and 144 girls in three school groups (aged 9-10 years, 13-14 years and 16-17 years) and in three language groups (Persian monolingual, Turkish-Persian bilingual, and Kurdish-Persian bilingual). In experiments 3 and 4, there were 200 male students in two school groups (aged 9-10 years and 16-17 years) and in two language groups (Persian monolingual and Turkish-Persian bilingual). In the episodic memory task, children learned sentences (experiments 1-3) and words (Experiment 4). Letter and category fluency tests were used as measures of semantic memory. To change cognitive demands in memory tasks, in Experiment 1, the integration of nouns and verbs within sentences was manipulated by the level of association between verb and noun in each sentence. At retrieval, a recognition test was used. In experiments 2 and 3, the organization between sentences was manipulated at encoding in Experiment 2 and at both encoding and retrieval in Experiment 3 through the use of categories among the objects. At retrieval, free recall or cued recall tests were employed. In Experiment 4, the bilingual children were tested with regard to both their first and their second language. In all four experiments, a positive effect of bilingualism was found on episodic and semantic memory tasks; the effect was more pronounced for older than younger children. The bilingual advantage was not affected by changing cognitive demands or by using first/second language in memory tasks. The present findings support the cross-language interactivity hypothesis of bilingual advantage.