How do anxious children attempt to regulate worry? Results from a qualitative study with an experimental manipulation.

Using an experimental manipulation followed by an interview, this study sought to investigate how anxious children seek to regulate their worries. Anxious children attempt to regulate their worry with use of behavioural regulation strategies, such as avoidance and distraction, and with use of cognitive regulation strategies, including thinking about something else, self-reassurance talk, and thought suppression. Sometimes, however, anxious children are not able to report a regulation strategy for a specific worry episode, suggesting that they may not always have a strategy or that they lack the introspective ability to report what they did. Clinicians should be aware that anxious children may use internal (cognitive) regulation strategies while at the same time using behavioural regulation strategies, such as avoidance.