摘要：This review focuses on pathological worry in children. Research suggests that pathological worry in children may best be distinguished by its intensity and uncontrollability, but not by its frequency. Furthermore there is evidence that worry functions as a problem solving strategy in children and adolescents and in older children it may aid avoidance of thinking about more significant worries. These functions can go wrong however, with high levels of worry being associated with positive beliefs about worry, poor problem solving confidence, attentional and interpretation biases and cognitive avoidance strategies. Models and theories of GAD in adults also appear to be applicable to children and adolescents with these younger populations showing associations between worry, and intolerance of uncertainty and negative beliefs about worry. Behavioural inhibition, parenting, genetics and life events are discussed as potential origins of pathological worry in children and the review finally calls for more research into specific causal mechanisms that promote pathological worry in children.
关键词：worry; Generalized Anxiety Disorder; children; adolescents; metacognition; intolerance of uncertainty; cognitive avoidance; problem solving
