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Rumination, Catastrophizing, and Other-Blame: The Cognitive-Emotional Regulation Strategies Involved in Anxiety-Related Life Interference in Anxious Children

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Abstract

Childhood anxiety problems have a great impact on the daily functioning of children and their families. The first objective of this study was to compare whether the use of cognitive-emotional regulation strategies differs in children with and without anxious symptomatology. A second objective was to analyze the possible mediating role of regulation strategies in the relationship between the presence of anxious symptomatology and its subsequent interference in children’s lives. In total, 315 children (53.7% boys) between 8 and 12 years old participated. Mann–Whitney–Wilcoxon U-test was used to analyze differences in the use of cognitive-emotional regulation strategies between children with and without anxious symptomatology. In order to identify the cognitive-emotional regulation strategies which mediate the relation between anxiety and the consequent interference in children's lives, mediation analyses were carried out. As expected, children with anxious symptomatology used more maladaptive regulatory strategies than those without such symptomatology. Multiple mediation models in parallel showed that catastrophizing, rumination, and other-blame mediated the relationship between anxiety problems and their consequent interference. The identification of functional or dysfunctional patterns of cognitive-emotion regulation may favor the inclusion of new components in the evidence-based interventions currently available, in an attempt to increase rates of remission of anxiety.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the participants for completion of the questionnaires.

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) of Spain [PSI2014-56446-P].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Miguel Hernández University, Alicante, Spain

    Miriam Rodríguez-Menchón, Mireia Orgilés, Iván Fernández-Martínez, José P. Espada & Alexandra Morales

  2. Department of Health Psychology, Miguel Hernández University, Avda. de la Universidad s/n, 03202, Elche, Alicante, Spain

    Mireia Orgilés

Authors
  1. Miriam Rodríguez-Menchón
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  2. Mireia Orgilés
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  3. Iván Fernández-Martínez
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  4. José P. Espada
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  5. Alexandra Morales
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Correspondence to Mireia Orgilés.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Miguel Hernández University research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Rodríguez-Menchón, M., Orgilés, M., Fernández-Martínez, I. et al. Rumination, Catastrophizing, and Other-Blame: The Cognitive-Emotional Regulation Strategies Involved in Anxiety-Related Life Interference in Anxious Children. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 52, 63–76 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-020-00988-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-020-00988-5

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