Social Information Processing in Children: Specific Relations to Anxiety, Depression, and Affect Aaron M. Luebbe, Debora J. Bell, Maureen A. Allwood, Lance P. Swenson, and Martha C. Early Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri Two studies examined shared and unique relations of social information processing (SIP) to youth’s anxious and depressive symptoms. Whether SIP added unique variance over and above trait affect in predicting internalizing symptoms was also examined. In Study 1, 215 youth (ages 8–13) completed symptom measures of anxiety and depression and a vignette-based interview measure of SIP. Anxiety and depression were each related to a more negative information-processing style. Only depression was uniquely related to a less positive information processing style. In Study 2, 127 youth (ages 10–13) completed measures of anxiety, depression, SIP, and trait affect. SIP’s relations to internalizing symptoms were replicated. Over and above negative affect, negative SIP predicted both anxiety and depression. Low positive SIP added variance over and above positive affect in predicting only depression. Finally, SIP functioning partially mediated the relations of affect to internalizing symptoms. In the past few decades, researchers have built a sub- stantial, yet conflicting, body of literature examining the specificity of anxiety and depression in children. Whether anxiety and depression represent one or two distinct constructs remains unclear (e.g., Axelson & Birmaher, 2001; L. A. Clark & Watson, 1991). Under- standing the extent to which anxiety, depression, and their correlates represent a single or multiple constructs informs etiology and maintenance theories of these con- ditions, elucidates theory on comorbidity more generally (Sher & Trull, 1996), and guides treatment and preven- tion efforts (e.g., Kendall, Kortlander, Chansky, & Brady, 1992). Given the prominence of cognitive symptoms in the- ories and treatments of the two disorders, understanding overlapping and distinctive cognitive correlates of youth anxiety and depression is especially important. A grow- ing literature documents that both anxiety and depression are related to social-cognitive symptoms such as selective attention to threatening or negative events, negative attributions for others’ behavior, and maladap- tive problem solving (e.g., Bell, Luebbe, Swenson, & Allwood, 2009; Daleiden & Vasey, 1997; Marien & Bell, 2004; Quiggle, Garber, Panak, & Dodge, 1992; Suarez-Morales & Bell, 2006; Vasey & Dadds, 2001). Conclusions about the specificity of cognitive aspects of anxiety and depression, however, are hampered by two notable limitations in extant literature. First, historically work has focused solely on anxiety or depression (or internalizing in general), and research is just starting to assess both simultaneously and specifi- cally (e.g., Eley et al., 2008). Without assessing both constructs, strong conclusions about common and unique elements of anxiety and depression cannot be made. Second, anxiety and depression are broad con- structs consisting of cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and physiological components. Yet the relations of cog- nitive aspects to these syndromes have been examined Aaron Luebbe is now at the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of Mississippi Medical Center. Maureen Allwood is now at the Department of Psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Lance Swenson is now at the Department of Psychology, Suffolk University. This work was supported by a University of Missouri Research Board Grant awarded to the second author. We thank the children and their families who participated in this study and the research assis- tants who helped with data collection. Correspondence should be addressed to Aaron M. Luebbe, Univer- sity of Mississippi Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, 2500 N. State Street, Jackson, MS 39216. E-mail: AML5F5@mail.mizzou.edu Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 39(3), 386–399, 2010 Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1537-4416 print=1537-4424 online DOI: 10.1080/15374411003691685 Downloaded By: [Univ Missouri Columbia] At: 20:08 28 April 2010