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Models of cognitive processing in anxiety disorders state that socially anxious children display several distorted cognitive processes that maintain their anxiety. The present study investigated the role of social threat thoughts and social skills perception in relation to childhood trait and state social anxiety. In total, 141 children varying in their levels of social anxiety performed a short speech task in front of a camera and filled out self-reports about their trait social anxiety, state anxiety, social skills perception and social threat thoughts. Results showed that social threat thoughts mediated the relationship between trait social anxiety and state anxiety after the speech task, even when controlling for baseline state anxiety. Furthermore, we found that children with higher trait anxiety and more social threat thoughts had a lower perception of their social skills, but did not display a social skills deficit. These results provide evidence for the applicability of the cognitive social anxiety model to children.

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Objectives: Specific fears, such as fear of spiders, are often used as a model for studying the development of other fears because several studies suggest that the underlying processes of fear are similar. For the screening of spider fear in children, a good, fast, and reliable screening instrument is needed. Unfortunately, however, such an instrument does not appear to exist yet. Therefore, the purpose of this article was to develop a short, reliable, and valid questionnaire to assess spider fear and spider disgust in children, the Spider Anxiety and Disgust Screening for Children (SADS-C). Methods: In Study 1, we tested the items of the SADS-C. In Study 2, we tested the psychometric properties related to the validity and reliability of the SADS-C. In Study 3, we administered the SADS-C in a large sample in order to provide normative data. Results: The results indicate good validity and reliability of the SADS-C; it was able to predict Spider Phobia Questionnaire for Children-C, Screen for Child Anxiety-Related Emotional Disorders-animal, and Behavioural Assessment Test Scores. The studies were all community-based samples; none of the children were actually seeking help for their spider fear. Conclusions: The SADS-C is a suitable questionnaire for assessing spider fear and disgust in children and is very suitable for epidemiological studies or for the screening of children in experimental research for which there is currently no appropriate instrument.