Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Threat-Related Attentional Bias in Anxious Youth: A Review

  • Published:
Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review Aims and scope Submit manuscript

The research literature suggests that children and adolescents suffering from anxiety disorders experience cognitive distortions that magnify their perceived level of threat in the environment. Of these distortions, an attentional bias toward threat-related information has received the most theoretical and empirical consideration. A large volume of research suggests that anxiety-disordered youth selectively allocate their attention toward threat-related information. The present review critically examines this research and highlights several issues relevant to the study of threat-related attentional bias in youth, including the influences of temperament, trait anxiety, and state anxiety on threat-related attentional bias. It furthermore identifies the need for developmental and methodological considerations and recommends directions for research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Albano A. M., Chorpita B. F., Barlow D. H. (1996). Childhood anxiety disorders. In: Mash E. J., Barkley R. A. (eds) Child Psychopathology. Guilford Press, New York, pp. 196–241

    Google Scholar 

  • Amir N., Elias J., Klumpp H., Przeworski A. (2003) Attentional bias to threat in social phobia: Facilitated processing of threat or difficulty disengaging attention from threat? Behaviour Research and Therapy 41:1325–1335

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson V. A., Anderson P., Northam E., Jacobs R., Catroppa C. (2001). Development of executive functions through late childhood and adolescence in an Australian sample. Developmental Neuropsychology 20:385–406

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Asmundson G. J. G., Stein M. B. (1994). Selective processing of social threat in patients with generalized social phobia: Evaluation using a dot-probe paradigm. Journal of Anxiety Disorders 8:107–117

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrett P. M., Rapee R. M., Dadds M. R., Ryan S. M. (1996). Family enhancement of cognitive style in anxious and aggressive children: Threat bias and the FEAR effect. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 24:187–203

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beck A. T., Clark D. A. (1988). Anxiety and depression: An information processing perspective. Anxiety Research 1:23–36

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck A. T., Emery G., Greenberg R. (1985). Anxiety Disorders and Phobias: A Cognitive Perspective. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck A. T., Steer R. A. (1990). The Beck Anxiety Inventory. The Psychological Corporation, Austin, TX

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell-Dolan D. J. (1995). Social cue interpretation of anxious children. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology 24:1–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyer M. C., Compas B. E., Stanger C., Colletti R. B., Konik B. S., Morrow S. B., Thomsen A. H. (2006). Attentional biases to pain and social threat in children with recurrent abdominal pain. Journal of Pediatric Psychology 31:209–220

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Broadbent D. E., Broadbent M. (1988). Anxiety and attentional bias: State and trait. Cognition and Emotion 2:165–183

    Google Scholar 

  • Brocki K. C., Bohlin G. (2004). Executive functions in children aged 6 to 13: A dimensional and developmental study. Developmental Neuropsychology 26:571–593

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brodeur D. A. (2004). Age changes in attention control: Assessing the role of stimulus contingencies. Cognitive Development 19:241–252

    Google Scholar 

  • Brodeur D. A., Boden C. (2001). The effects of spatial uncertainty and cue predictability on visual orienting in children. Cognitive Development 15:367–383

    Google Scholar 

  • Brodeur D. A., Enns J. T. (1997). Covert visual orienting across the lifespan. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology 51:20–35

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Caspi A., Henry B., McGee R. O., Moffitt T. E., Silva P. A. (1995). Temperamental origins of child and adolescent behavior problems: From age three to age fifteen. Child Development 66:55–68

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chen Y. P., Ehlers A., Clark D. M., Mansell W. (2002). Patients with generalized social phobia direct their attention away from faces. Behaviour Research and Therapy 40:677–687

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chorpita B. F., Albano A. M., Barlow D. H. (1996). Cognitive processing in children: Relationship to anxiety and family influences. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology 25:170–176

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark L. A., Watson D. (1991). Tripartite model of anxiety and depression: Psychometric evidence and taxonomic implications. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 100:316–336

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen L. B. (1972). Attention-getting and attention-holding processes of infant visual preference. Child Development 43:869–879

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Comer J. S., Kendall P. C. (2004). A symptom-level examination of parent–child agreement in the diagnosis of anxious youths. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 43:878–886

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Costello E. J., Angold A., Burns B. J., Stangl D. K., Tweed D. L., Erkanli A., Worthman C. M. (1996). The Great Smoky Mountains Study of youth: Goals, design, methods, and the prevalence of DSM-III-R disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry 53:1129–1136

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Daleiden E. L., Vasey M. W. (1997). An information-processing perspective on childhood anxiety. Clinical Psychology Review 17:407–429

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dalgleish T., Moradi A. R., Taghavi R., Neshat-Doost H. T., Yule W., Canterbury R. (2000). Judgments about emotional events in children and adolescents with post-traumatic stress disorder and controls. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 41:981–988

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dalgleish T., Moradi A. R., Taghavi M. R., Neshat-Doost H. T., Yule W. (2001). An experimental investigation of hypervigilance for threat in children and adolescents with post-traumatic stress disorder. Psychological Medicine 31:541–547

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dalgleish T., Taghavi R., Neshat-Doost H., Moradi A., Canterbury R., Yule W. (2003). Patterns of processing bias for emotional information across clinical disorders: A comparison of attention, memory, and prospective cognition in children and adolescents with depression, generalized anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology 32:10–21

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dalgleish T., Taghavi R., Neshat-Doost H., Moradi A., Yule W., Canterbury R. (1997). Information processing in clinically depressed and anxious children and adolescents. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 38:535–541

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • De Luca C. R., Wood S. J., Anderson V., Buchanan J., Proffitt T. M., Mahoney K., Pantelis C. (2003). Normative data from the Cantab. I: Development of executive function over the lifespan. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology 25:242–254

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Derryberry D., Reed M. (2002). Anxiety-related attentional biases and their regulation by attentional control. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 111:225–236

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Egloff B., Hock M. (2001). Interactive effects of state anxiety and trait anxiety on emotional Stroop interference. Personality and Individual Differences 31:875–882

    Google Scholar 

  • Ehrenreich J. T., Gross A. M. (2002). Biased attentional behavior in childhood anxiety: A review of theory and current empirical investigation. Clinical Psychology Review 22:991–1008

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Enns J. T., Brodeur D. A. (1989). A developmental study of covert orienting to peripheral visual cues. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 48:171–189

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eysenck M. W. (1992). Anxiety: The Cognitive Perspective. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd., London

    Google Scholar 

  • Eysenck M. W. (1997). Anxiety and Cognition: A Unified Theory. Psychology Press/Erlbaum, Hove, England

    Google Scholar 

  • Field A. P. (2006). Watch out for the beast: Fear information and attentional bias in children. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology 35:431–439

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Filion D. L., Dawson M. E., Schell A. M. (1993). Modification of the acoustic startle-reflex eyeblink: A tool for investigating early and late attentional processes. Biological Psychiatry 35:185–200

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fox E., Russo R., Dutton K. (2002). Attention bias for threat: Evidence for delayed disengagement from emotional faces. Cognition and Emotion 16:355–379

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hale S.. (1990). A global developmental trend in cognitive processing speed. Child Development 61:653–663

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Heim-Dreger U., Kohlmann C., Eschenbeck H., Burkhardt U. (2006). Attentional biases for threatening faces in children: Vigilant and avoidant processes. Emotion 6:320–325

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hope D. A., Rapee R. M., Heimberg R. G., Dombeck M. J. (1990). Representations of the self in social phobia: Vulnerability to social threat. Cognitive Therapy and Research 14:177–189

    Google Scholar 

  • Huttonlocher P. R. (1990). Morphometric study of human cerebral cortex development. Neupsychologia 28:517–527

    Google Scholar 

  • Ialongo N., Edelsohn G., Werthamer-Larsson L., Crockett L., Kellam S. (1995). The significance of self-reported anxious symptoms in first grade children: Prediction to anxious symptoms and adaptive functioning in fifth grade. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 36:427–437

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ingram R. E., Kendall P. C. (1987). The cognitive side of anxiety. Cognitive Therapy and Research 11:523–536

    Google Scholar 

  • Kashani J. H., Orvaschel H. (1988). Anxiety disorders in mid-adolescence: A community sample. American Journal of Psychiatry 145:960–964

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Keller M. B., Lavori P., Wunder J., Beardslee W. R., Schwarts C. E., Roth J. (1992). Chronic course on anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 312:595–599

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kendall P. C. (1978). Anxiety: Traits, states—situations? Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 46:280–287

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kendall P. C., Flannery-Schroeder E. C. (1998). Methodological issues in treatment research for anxiety disorders in youth. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 26:27–38

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kindt M., Bierman D., Brosschot J. F. (1997a). Cognitive bias in spider fear and control children: Assessment of emotional interference by a card format and a single-trial format of the Stroop task. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 66:163–179

    Google Scholar 

  • Kindt M., Bogels S., Morren M. (2003). Processing bias in children with separation anxiety disorder, social phobia, and generalized anxiety disorder. Behaviour Change 20:143–150

    Google Scholar 

  • Kindt M., Brosschot J. F. (1999). Cognitive bias in spider-phobic children: Comparison of a pictorial and a linguistic spider Stroop. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioural Assessment 21:207–220

    Google Scholar 

  • Kindt M., Brosschot J. F., Everaerd W. (1997b). Cognitive processing of children in a real life stress situation and a neutral situation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 64:79–97

    Google Scholar 

  • Kindt M., van den Hout M. (2001). Selective attention and anxiety: A perspective on developmental issues and the causal status. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioural Assessment 23:193–202

    Google Scholar 

  • Kindt M., van den Hout M., de Jong P., Hoekzema B. (2000). Cognitive bias for pictorial and linguistic threat cues in children. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment 22:201–219

    Google Scholar 

  • Koster E. H. W, Crombez G., Verschuere B., De Houwer J. (2004). Selective attention to threat in the dot-probe paradigm: Differentiating vigilance and difficulty to disengage. Behaviour Research and Therapy 42:1183–1192

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koster E. H. W., Verschuere B., Crombez G., Van Damme S. (2005). Time-course of attention for threatening pictures in high and low trait anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy 43:1087–1098

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kovacs M., Devlin B. (1998). Internalizing disorders in childhood. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 39:47–63

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • LaGreca A. M., Lopez N. (1998). Social anxiety among adolescents: linkages with peer relations and friendships. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 26:83–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Lengua L. J. (2002). The contribution of emotionality and self-regulation to the understanding of children’s response to multiple risk. Child Development 73:144–161

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Levin H. S., Culhane K., Hartmann J., Evankovich K., Mattson A. J., Harward H., Mattson A. J. (1991). Developmental changes in performance on tests of purported frontal lobe functioning. Developmental Neuropsychology 7:377–395

    Google Scholar 

  • Lipp O. V., Siddle D. A. T., Dall P. J. (1997). The effect of foreground stimulus modality on blink magnitude startle modulation. Psychophysiology 34:340–347

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lonigan C. L., Phillips B. M. (2001). Temperamental influences on the development of anxiety disorders. In: Vasey M. W., Dadds M. R. (eds) The Developmental Psychopathology of Anxiety. Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 253–277

    Google Scholar 

  • Lonigan C. L., Vasey M. W., Phillips B. M., Hazen R. A. (2004). Temperament, anxiety, and the processing of threat-relevant stimuli. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology 33:8–20

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Luna B., Garver K. E., Urban T. A., Lazar N. A., Sweeney J. A. (2004). Maturation of cognitive processes from late childhood to adulthood. Child Development 75:1357–1372

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • MacLeod C., Mathews A. (1988). Anxiety and the allocation of attention to threat. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 40:653–670

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • MacLeod C., Mathews A., Tata P. (1986). Attentional bias in emotional disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 95:15–20

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • MacLeod C., Rutherford E., Campbell L., Elsworthy G., Holker L. (2002). Selective attention and emotional vulnerability: Assessing the causal basis of their association through the experimental manipulation of attentional bias. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 111:107–123

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Manly T., Anderson V., Nimmo-Smith I., Turner A., Watson P., Robertson I. H. (2001). The differential assessment of children’s attention: The Test of Everyday Attention for Children (TEA-ch), normative sample, and ADHD performance. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 42:1065–1081

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mansell W., Clark D. M., Ehlers A., Chen Y. P. (1999). Social anxiety and attention away from faces. Cognition and Emotion 13:673–690

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin M., Horder P., Jones G. V. (1992). Integral bias in naming of phobia-related words. Cognition and Emotion 6:479–486

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathews A., Mackintosh B. (2000). Induced emotional interpretation bias and anxiety. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 109:602–615

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mathews A. (1990). Why worry? The cognitive function of anxiety. Behaviour research and Therapy 28:455–468

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mathews A., MacLeod C. (1985). Selective processing of threat cues in anxiety states. Behaviour Research and Therapy 23:563–569

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mathews A., MacLeod C. (1994). Cognitive approaches to emotion and emotional disorders. Annual Review of Psychology 45:25–50

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mathews A., Mogg K., Kentish J., Eysenck M. (1995). Effect of psychological treatment on cognitive bias in generalized anxiety disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy 33:293–303

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mathews A., Ridgeway, V., Williamson, D. A. (1996). Evidence for attention to threatening stimuli in depression. Behaviour Research and Therapy 34:695–705

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mathews A., Sebastian S. (1993). Suppression of emotional Stroop effects by fear-arousal. Cognition and Emotion 7:517–530

    Google Scholar 

  • Mattia J. I., Heimberg R. G., Hope D. A. (1993). The revised Stroop color-naming task in social phobics. Behaviour Research and Therapy 31:305–313

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mogg K., Bradley B. P. (1998). A cognitive-motivational analysis of anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy 36:809–848

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mogg K., Bradley B. P., Miles F., Dixon R. (2004). Time course of attentional bias for threat scenes: testing the vigilance-avoidance hypothesis. Cognition and Emotion 18:689–700

    Google Scholar 

  • Mogg K., Bradley B. P., Millar N., White J. (1995). A follow-up study of cognitive bias in generalized anxiety disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy 33:927–935

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mogg K., Kentish J., Bradley B. P. (1993). Effects of anxiety and awareness on colour-identification latencies for emotional words. Behaviour Research and Therapy 31:559–567

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mogg K., Mathews A., Eysenck M. (1992). Attentional bias to threat in clinical anxiety states. Cognition and Emotion 6:149–159

    Google Scholar 

  • Mogg K., McNamara J., Powys M., Rawlinson H., Seiffer A., Bradley B. P. (2000). Selective attention to threat: A test of two cognitive models of anxiety. Cognition and Emotion 14:375–399

    Google Scholar 

  • Moradi A. R., Taghavi M. R., Neshat Doost H. T., Yule W., Dalgleish T. (1999). Performance of children and adolescents with PTSD on the Stroop colour-naming task. Psychological Medicine 29:415–419

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Moradi A. R., Taghavi M. R., Neshat Doost H. T., Yule W., Dalgleish T. (2000). Memory bias for emotional information in children and adolescents with posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders 14:521–534

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morren M., Kindt M., van den Hout M., van Kasteren H. (2003). Anxiety and the processing of threat in children: Further examinination of the cognitive inhibition hypothesis. Behaviour Change 20:131–142

    Google Scholar 

  • Muris P., De Jong P. J., Engelen S. (2004). Relationships between neuroticism, attentional control, and anxiety disorders symptoms in non-clinical children. Personality and Individual Differences 37:789–797

    Google Scholar 

  • Muris P., Ollendick T. H. (2005). The role of temperament in the etiology of child psychopathology. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review 8:271–289

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Musa C., Lepine C. P., Clark D. M., Mansell W., Ehlers A. (2003). Selective attention in social phobia and the moderating effect of a concurrent depressive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy 41:1043–1054

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Neshat-Doost H., Moradi A., Taghavi R., Yule W., Dalgleish T. (1999a). Lack of attentional bias for emotional information in clinically depressed children and adolescents on the dot-probe task. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 41:363–368

    Google Scholar 

  • Neshat-Doost H., Moradi A., Taghavi R., Yule W., Dalgleish T. (1999b). The development of a corpus of emotional words produced by children and adolescents. Personality and Individual Differences 27:433–451

    Google Scholar 

  • Neshat Doost H. T., Taghavi M. R., Moradi A. R., Yule W., Dalgleish T. (1997). The performance of clinically depressed children and adolescents on the modified Stroop paradigm. Personality and Individual Differences 23:753–759

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearson D. A., Lane D. M. (1991). Visual attention movements: A developmental study. Child Development 61:1779–1795

    Google Scholar 

  • Pine D. S., Klein R. G., Mannuzza S., Moulton J. L., Lissek S., Guardino M., Woldehawariat G. (2005a). Face-emotion processing in offspring at risk for panic disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 44:664–672

    Google Scholar 

  • Pine D. S., Mogg K., Bradley B. P., Montgomery L., Monk C. S., McClure E., Guyer A. E., Ernst M., Charney D. S., Kaufman J. (2005b). Attention bias to threat in maltreated children: Implications for vulnerability to stress-related psychopathology. American Journal of Psychiatry 162:291–296

    Google Scholar 

  • Posner M. I. (1988). Structures and functions of selective attention. In: Boll T., Bryant B. (eds) Clinical Neuropsychology and Brain Function. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, pp. 173–202

    Google Scholar 

  • Posner M. I., Petersen S. E. (1990). The attention systems of the human brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience 13:25–42

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Richards A., Richards L. C., McGeeney A. (2000). Anxiety-related Stroop interference in adolescents. The Journal of General Psychology 127:327–333

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rinck M., Becker E. S. (2005). A comparison of attentional biases and memory biases in women with social phobia and major depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 114:62–74

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rothbart M. K., Bates J. E. (1998). Temperament. In: Damon W., Eisenberg N. (eds) Handbook of Child Psychology: Volume 3. Social, Emotional, and Personality Development, 5 ed. Wiley, New York, pp. 105–176

    Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford E. M., MacLeod C., Campbell L. W. (2004). Negative selectivity effects and emotional selectivity effects in anxiety: Differential attentional correlates of state and trait variables. Cognition and Emotion 18:711–720

    Google Scholar 

  • Schippell P. L., Vasey M. W., Cravens-Brown L. M., Bretveld R. A. (2003). Suppressed attention to rejection, ridicule, and failure cues: A unique correlate of reactive but not proactive aggression in youth. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology 32:40–55

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz C. E., Snidman N., Kagan J. (1996). Early temperamental predictors of Stroop interference to threatening information at adolescence. Journal of Anxiety Disorders 10:89–96

    Google Scholar 

  • Silverman W., Albano A. M. (1996). The Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for Children (DSM-IV). Psychological Corporation, San Antonio

    Google Scholar 

  • Sowell E. R., Thompson P. M., Holmes C. J., Jernigan T. L., Toga A. W. (1999). In vivo evidence for post-adolescent brain maturation in frontal and striatal regions. Nature Neuroscience 2:859–861

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Spielberger C. D. (1973). Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children. Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, CA

    Google Scholar 

  • Spielberger C. D., Gorsuch R. L., Lushene R., Vagg P. R., Jacobs G. A. (1983). Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, CA

    Google Scholar 

  • Strauss C. C., Lahey B. B., Frick P., Frame C. L., Hynd G. W. (1988). Peer social status of children with anxiety disorders. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 56:137–141

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stroop J. R. (1938). Factors affecting speed in serial verbal reactions. Psychological Monograms 50:38–48

    Google Scholar 

  • Taghavi M. R., Dalgleish T., Moradi A. R., Neshat-Doost H. T., Yule W. (2003). Selective processing of negative emotional information in children and adolescents with generalized anxiety disorder. British Journal of Clinical Psychology 42:221–230

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Taghavi M. R., Neshat-Doost H. T., Moradi A. R., Yule W., Dalgleish T. (1999). Biases in visual attention in children and adolescents with clinical anxiety and mixed anxiety-depression. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 27:215–223

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Teasdale J. D., Segal Z., Williams J. M. G. (1995). How does cognitive therapy prevent depressive relapse and why should attentional control (mindfulness) training help? Behaviour Research and Therapy 33:25–39

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tipper S. P., Bourque T. A., Anderson S. H., Brehaut J. C. (1989). Mechanisms of attention: A developmental study. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 48:353–378

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vasey M. W., Daleiden E. L., Williams L. L., Brown L. M. (1995). Biased attention in childhood anxiety disorders: A preliminary study. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 23:267–279

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vasey M. W., Dalgleish T., Silverman W. K. (2003). Research on information-processing factors in child and adolescent psychopathology: A critical commentary. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology 32:81–93

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vasey M. W., El-Hag N., Daleiden E. L. (1996). Anxiety and the processing of emotionally threatening stimuli: Distinctive patterns of selective attention among high- and low-anxious children. Child Development 67:1173–1185

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vasey M. W., MacLeod C. (2001). Information-processing factors in childhood anxiety: A review and developmental perspective. In: Vasey M. W., Dadds M. R. (eds) The Developmental Psychopathology of Anxiety. Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 253–277

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker L. S., Smith C. A., Garber J., VanSlyke D. A. (1997). Development and validation of the pain response inventory for children. Psychological Assessment 9:392–405

    Google Scholar 

  • Waters A. M., Lipp O. V., Cobham V. E. (2000). Investigation of threat-related attentional bias in anxious children using the startle eyeblink modification paradigm. Journal of Psychophysiology 14:142–150

    Google Scholar 

  • Waters A. M., Lipp O. V., Spence S. H. (2004). Attentional bias toward fear-related stimuli: An investigation with nonselected children and adults and children with anxiety disorders. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 89:320–337

    Google Scholar 

  • Wikstrom J., Lundh L., Westerlund J. (2003). Stroop effects for masked threat words: Pre-attentive bias or selective awareness? Cognition and Emotion 17:827–842

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams J. M. G., Watts F. N., MacLeod C., Mathews A. (1988). Cognitive Psychology and Emotional Disorders. Wiley, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams J. M. G., Watts F. N., MacLeod C., Mathews A. (1997). Cognitive Psychology and Emotional Disorders 2nd ed. Wiley, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson E., MacLeod C. (2003). Contrasting two accounts of anxiety-linked attentional bias: Selective attention to varying levels of stimulus threat intensity. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 112:212–218

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yaklovev P. I., Lecours A. R. (1967). The myelogenetic cycles of regional maturation of the brain. In: Minkowski A. (eds) Regional Development of the Brain in Early Life. Blackwell Scientific, Oxford, England, pp. 3–70

    Google Scholar 

  • Yiend J., Mathews A. (2001). Anxiety and attention to threatening pictures. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 54A:665–681

    Google Scholar 

  • Zald D. H., Iacono W. G. (1998). The development of spatial working memory abilities. Developmental Neuropsychology 14:563–578

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Temple University, 1701 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA

    Anthony C. Puliafico & Philip C. Kendall

Authors
  1. Anthony C. Puliafico
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Philip C. Kendall
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Philip C. Kendall.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Puliafico, A.C., Kendall, P.C. Threat-Related Attentional Bias in Anxious Youth: A Review. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 9, 162–180 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-006-0009-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-006-0009-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation