Relation of childhood worry to information-processing factors in an ethnically diverse community sample

This study examined information-processing variables in relation to worry in a sample of 292 fifth-grade children from Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic backgrounds. Results revealed that worry was related to threat interpretations for hypothetical situations and, when stress level was not controlled, to higher estimates of future occurrence for perceived threatening situations and ineffective solution choices. In addition, environmental and individual factors such as stress, gender and socioeconomic status (SES) were found to be important predictors of information-processing variables. Ethnicity did not predict children's information processing when stress level and SES were controlled; however it interacted with worry to predict problem-solving confidence. The findings support the information-processing model for childhood anxiety in a nonreferred and ethnically diverse sample.