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Components of Attentional Bias to Threat in Clinically Anxious Children: An Experimental Study Using the Emotional Spatial Cueing Paradigm

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Abstract

Attentional bias to threat is believed to play a key role in the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders. However, the underlying attentional mechanisms related to anxiety are not well understood. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of cognitive therapy on the engagement and disengagement components of attentional bias to threat in clinically anxious children using the emotional spatial cueing paradigm. Anxiety was diagnosed using the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule and the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale. Results from 27 clinically anxious children and 27 control children (7–13 years old) indicated that clinically anxious children showed significantly faster engagement to angry faces than control children. Results also indicated that clinically anxious children showed significantly faster disengagement from angry faces before treatment in comparison to control children and significantly slower disengagement from angry faces after treatment than they did before treatment. Findings suggests that cognitive therapy reduces attentional avoidance of threat in clinically anxious children and challenges the assumption that results can be generalized from subclinical to clinical samples.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank participating children and parents for partaking in the study as well as all staff and psychology students who have assisted the process.

Funding

This study was funded by the Tryg Foundation, Grant Number 7-12-0702, Sygekassernes Helse Foundation, Grant Number 2011A613, and Augustinus Foundation, Grant Number 12-01-019.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 2A, 1353, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Andreas Blicher & Marie Louise Reinholdt-Dunne

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  1. Andreas Blicher
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  2. Marie Louise Reinholdt-Dunne
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Correspondence to Andreas Blicher.

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Conflict of Interest

Andreas Blicher and Marie Louise Reinholdt-Dunne declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Blicher, A., Reinholdt-Dunne, M.L. Components of Attentional Bias to Threat in Clinically Anxious Children: An Experimental Study Using the Emotional Spatial Cueing Paradigm. Cogn Ther Res 43, 884–892 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-019-10008-z

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