Cognitive models of social anxiety suggest that social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by both enhanced emotional reactivity and deficits in emotion regulation. Emotional reactivity to socially threatening children’s faces and their modulation through reappraisal were measured via subjective ratings and electrocortical responses in children (age 10–13) with SAD (n = 28), clinical controls with mixed anxiety disorders (n = 28), and healthy controls (n = 29). Children with SAD showed higher subjective reactivity to the images of angry children’s faces while all children reported reduced reactivity in their subjective ratings following reappraisal. Reduced electrocortical reactivity after reappraisal was only evident in older children and boys and was unrelated to anxiety. The present study indicates that cognitive reappraisal may be beneficial in reducing subjective reactivity in children with anxiety disorders, while neural effects of reappraisal may emerge at older ages.

社交焦虑症的认知模型表明，社交焦虑症（SAD）的特征是情绪反应性增强和情绪调节功能缺陷。通过对SAD（n  = 28），混合焦虑症（n  = 28）的临床对照（n = 28）的儿童（10-13岁）的主观评分和电皮层反应，测量了对具有社会威胁的孩子的面部的情绪反应以及通过重新评估对他们的调节。对照（ñ = 29）。患有SAD的儿童对生气的孩子的脸部图像表现出较高的主观反应性，而所有儿童在重新评估后均报告其主观评分的反应性降低。重新评估后电皮质反应性降低仅在较大的儿童和男孩中明显，并且与焦虑无关。本研究表明，认知重新评估可能有助于降低焦虑症患儿的主观反应性，而重新评估的神经作用可能会在年龄较大时出现。