14 DAY TRIAL // Teenagers who respond to unclear social situations by adopting a positive perspective on things, rather than simply assuming the worse will happen, are more likely to experience lower levels of anxiety than their peers who tend to develop a negative perspective on things.
Teenagers who suffer from anxiety can be set on edge by a large number of situations, and so discovering ways of preparing them to face those scenarios is very important. Having a positive outlook on things can definitely help in that regard, the team behind the new study says.
In the long run, changing their mindsets so drastically can help anxious teens develop into more peaceful adults, capable of leading a life that is not controlled by anxiety. The study that arrived at this conclusion was led by experts at the Oxford University.
Initially, the team showed that it is possible to trigger both positive and negative thinking in teenagers on demand. But negative thoughts are known to have the unwanted side-effect of deepening anxiety in troubled individuals.
What the researchers sought to demonstrate next was that it is possible to revert this negative mindset in this subgroup of the population. The Oxford team says this approach is known as cognitive bias modification of interpretations (CBM-I).
“It’s thought that some people may tend to draw negative interpretations of ambiguous situations. For example, I might wave at someone I recently met on the other side of the street,” explains study researcher Jennifer Lau, PhD.
“If they don’t wave back, I might think they didn’t remember me – or alternatively, I might think they’re snubbing me.” People with anxiety are more likely to assume the latter interpretation,” the expert adds, quoted by PsychCentral.
“These negative thoughts are believed to drive and maintain their feelings of low mood and anxiety. If you can change that negative style of thinking, perhaps you can change mood in anxious teenagers,” says Lau, who is based at the Oxford Department of Experimental Psychology.
Researchers acknowledge anxiety to become a problem only when it is extremely persistent, or entirely out of proportion with the situation to which it developed as a response. All teens worry about exams, friends and social acceptance, but some take this behavior to extremes.
“For example when someone is doing well at school but still worries all the time and can’t control the worry. In some extreme cases, kids avoid going to school because they are anxious. This is not being just a little bit worried,” Lau concludes.
Details of the research effort appear in the latest issue of the esteemed journal Child Psychiatry and Human Development.