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Initial Maintenance of Attention to Threat in Children with Social Anxiety Disorder? Findings from an Eye-Tracking Experiment
Background Attentional biases are assumed to be a core feature in the etiology and maintenance of clinical anxiety. The present study focuses on initial maintenance of attention to threat, one of three attentional components investigated the least, particularly in child anxiety. Methods Angry and ne...
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Published in: | Cognitive therapy and research 2022-02, Vol.46 (1), p.197-208 |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Citations: | Items that this one cites Items that cite this one |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | Background
Attentional biases are assumed to be a core feature in the etiology and maintenance of clinical anxiety. The present study focuses on
initial maintenance of attention
to threat, one of three attentional components investigated the least, particularly in child anxiety.
Methods
Angry and neutral facial expressions were presented in a free-viewing task, while eye-movements were recorded. Participants were
N
= 96 school-aged children, with
n
= 50 children with a clinical social anxiety disorder (SAD) and
n
= 46 healthy control children (HC). Prior to the task, social stress was induced in half of participating children to investigate the impact of increased levels of distress on initial attention allocation.
Results
The length of first fixation to angry faces in children with SAD neither differed from the length of first fixation to neutral faces nor the length of first fixation to angry faces in HC children. Furthermore, this variable was not affected by a stress induction procedure. However, children with SAD initially fixated longer on faces than HC children.
Conclusion
Our findings provide evidence for difficulties disengaging attention from faces. This may indicate that attention allocation is determined by the social nature of the stimuli rather than by the specific emotional valence. |
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ISSN: | 0147-5916 1573-2819 |
DOI: | 10.1007/s10608-021-10244-2 |