Problems with anxiety and depression often first emerge in adolescence
Training teenagers to look at social situations positively could help those with anxiety and may help prevent problems persisting into adult life, new research from Oxford University is beginning to suggest. The researchers found that tasks designed to prompt either positive or negative interpretations of unclear situations can shift how healthy teenagers think about such events. The approach is called 'cognitive bias modification of interpretations' or CBM-I. Having shown in the lab that positive or negative styles of thinking can be induced in adolescents without any anxiety problems, the team now wants to see if it is possible to change the negative thoughts that can drive problems in teenagers with high anxiety. The researchers from Oxford University, along with a colleague at the Institute of Psychiatry, have published their findings in the journal Child Psychiatry and Human Development. 'It's thought that some people may tend to draw negative interpretations of ambiguous situations,' explains Jennifer Lau, who led the work at the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University. 'For example, I might wave at someone I recently met on the other side of the street.
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