Haley E Conroy Busch

• Master of Arts
• PhD Student at University of Houston

Introduction Although effortful control—the ability to restrain impulsive reactions in favor of more adaptive responses—has been identified as a protective factor for childhood anxiety, the protective effects of effortful control in terms of anxious children’s social/adaptive functioning remains unexplored. The present study examined the moderating...

Background Although childhood exposure to parental threatening behaviors is associated with elevated anxiety in emerging adulthood, the underlying mechanisms remain unexplored. Perceived stress—a subjective experience comprised of feelings of helplessness (being unable to cope or exert control) and poor self‐efficacy (confidence in one's ability to...

Background Approach tendency to smoking-related cues has been associated with greater cravings, nicotine dependence, and the likelihood of relapse. In this pilot randomized clinical trial, we examined the efficacy of approach bias retraining (ABR; i.e., increasing avoidance tendency) for enhancing standard smoking cessation treatment (ST). Methods...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.conctc.2019.100340.].

A fearful temperament in childhood is associated with child internalizing symptoms. However, the cognitive mechanisms explaining this association are poorly understood. We examined the effects of child fearful temperament on child internalizing symptoms and the underlying role of catastrophizing cognitions among clinically anxious youth. Children (...

Study Objective The purpose of this study was to examine feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a mindfulness-based healthy lifestyle self-management intervention with adolescents and young adults diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Design A pilot randomized controlled trial using a pre-post design was used. Setting...

The present study investigated the interactive effect of reactive (negative emotionality) and regulatory (effortful control) aspects of temperament in the prediction of child anxiety and depressive symptoms. Clinically anxious children and their mothers completed a battery of questionnaires that included self- and mother-ratings of child effortful...

Objectives: Non-pharmacologic pain management strategies are needed due to the growing opioid epidemic. While studies have examined the efficacy of virtual reality (VR) for pain reduction, there is little research in adult inpatient settings, and no studies comparing the relative efficacy of standard animated CGI VR (computer-generated imaging VR)...

Children with anxiety disorders experience a persistent sense of dread that is disproportionate to the identified fear stimulus and may express this in many ways, including excessive crying, tantrums, avoidance of feared situations, clinginess, and freezing responses. Anxiety disorders are the most common form of psychopathology in children and ado...

Fearful temperament—the tendency to exhibit apprehension and/or avoidance in novel situations—is a well-established risk factor for childhood anxiety in general, and social anxiety in particular. Yet, there is little understanding of parent emotion socialization strategies that influence the association between fearful temperament and child social...

The present study examined the underlying role of anxiety sensitivity in the association between effortful control and anxiety and depressive symptoms in a sample of clinically anxious children. It was hypothesized that effortful control would exert an indirect effect through anxiety sensitivity in relation to child anxiety and depressive symptoms....

Individual differences in interpretation biases—the tendency to interpret ambiguous stimuli as threatening—partially explain the presence of comorbid depressive symptoms among anxious youth. Increasing efforts have examined physiological processes that influence the association between interpretation biases and depressive symptoms in this populatio...

The present study aimed to replicate the finding that younger age predicts higher pre quit-day attrition. Our second aim was to explain this relation by examining empirically and theoretically informed age-related risk factors for low smoking cessation treatment engagement. 136 participants (Mage = 44.2 years, SD = 11.3 years; age = 22–64 years) we...

Heavy users and addicted individuals have shown to develop an approach action tendency – or approach bias – toward stimuli related to the substance of interest. Emerging evidence points to approach bias retraining (ABR) as an effective aid for the treatment of addictive behaviors. The current study seeks to extend this work by testing, in a pilot s...

Extant evidence suggests that exercise can reduce anxiety related vulnerability factors, such as anxiety sensitivity (AS), or fear of bodily sensations related to anxiety, that negatively impact smoking cessation outcomes. Building upon emerging evidence supporting the efficacy of exercise as an aid for smoking cessation in adults with high AS, we...

There is a surprising lack of disseminable, community-based interventions for veterans experiencing difficulties during the reintegration process from military to civilian life. Physical Activity and Community Engagement (PACE) is a program which combines routine vigorous-intensity exercise with community engagement. The program builds on emergent...