Mental Imagery in Social Anxiety in Children and Young People: A Systematic Review
Open accessAbstract
Current cognitive models of social anxiety disorder (SAD) in adults indicate that negative self-images play a pivotal role in maintaining the disorder. However, little is known about the role of negative imagery in the maintenance of social anxiety for children and young people. We systematically reviewed studies that have investigated the association between imagery and social anxiety in children and young people. Four databases were searched for ‘social anxiety’ and related terms (including ‘social phobia’ and ‘performance anxiety’) combined with ‘imagery’, ‘representation*’, and ‘observer perspective’. The nine studies that met the inclusion criteria provided some evidence that children and young people with higher social anxiety report more negative, observer’s perspective images, and some evidence to support the cognitive models of SAD’s conceptualisation of imagery. Only two studies included samples with pre-adolescent children. The literature is limited by a number of methodological issues, including inconsistencies in, and a lack of good psychometric measures for, imagery in children and young people. More conclusive evidence is needed to develop significant and robust conclusions.
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The factors involved in the cognitive models of social anxiety disorder seem applicable to children and adolescents.
“The factors involved in the cognitive models seem applicable to children and adolescents (Chapman, Halldorsson, and Creswell 2020;Leigh and Clark 2018).”
From Negative Flashforward Imagery in Adolescent Social Anxiety Disorder: A Pilot Study of Imagery Reports and a Short EMDR Intervention. (2024) · cites this paper as Chapman, Halldorsson, and Creswell 2020
The Discussion (page not available) finds that observer-perspective imagery is associated with social anxiety in children and young people, consistent with adult cognitive models. But the review examines imagery rather than establishing that the models’ factors generally apply to children and adolescents; it also notes that few studies included pre-adolescent children. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredMost studies on negative imagery and imagery-based interventions to date have focused on adults, indicating a lack of studies in young people with social anxiety disorder.
“However, despite the apparent relevance of imagery in the persistence of SAD in youth, most studies on negative imagery and, particularly, on imagery-based interventions to date have focused on adults, thus indicating a lack of studies in young people with SAD (Chapman, Halldorsson, and Creswell 2020;Thunnissen et al. 2024).”
From Negative Flashforward Imagery in Adolescent Social Anxiety Disorder: A Pilot Study of Imagery Reports and a Short EMDR Intervention. (2024) · cites this paper as Chapman, Halldorsson, and Creswell 2020
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“It is important to note that several other SAD-specific models that identify negative imagery as a maintenance mechanism have been published recently (e.g. Hofmann 2007; Wong and Rapee 2016).”
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Salari, N., Heidarian, P., Hassanabadi, M., Babajani, F., Abdoli, N., Aminian, M., & Mohammadi, M. (2024) · Journal of Prevention · doi:10.1007/s10935-024-00789-9 · Cited by 90 · see citing works
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“In a systematic review study conducted by Chapman et al. (2020), a strong relationship was found between social anxiety and mental SI in children and young people, and it was concluded that individuals with high social anxiety created worse SI [72].”
Thunnissen, M. R., de Jong, P. J., Weijermans, J., Vet, L. J. J., Rijkeboer, M. M., & Nauta, M. H. (2024) · Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy · doi:10.1002/cpp.3063 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
- Authors
- Chapman, J., Halldorsson, B., & Creswell, C.
- Affiliations
- Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
- Reykjavík University (IS)
- Warneford Hospital (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Halldorsson, Brynjar
- Venue
- Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review
- Published
- 2020-04-15
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 379-392
- ISSN
- 1096-4037 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-2827
- PMC
- PMC7366604
- OpenAlex
- W3014866104
- Cited by
- 22
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 0.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Opin vísindi (Opin vísindi) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- National Institute for Health Research (NIHR-RP-2014-04-018)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychological Treatments and Assessments
- Keywords
- mental imagery, social anxiety, children and young people, social anxiety disorder, performance anxiety, observer perspective, negative self-concept, cognitive models of anxiety, anxiety maintenance, preadolescents
- MeSH terms
- Phobia, Social, Adolescent, Child, Humans, Imagination, Self Concept
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