Attentional bias for emotional faces in children with generalized anxiety disorder.
OBJECTIVE
To examine attentional bias for angry and happy faces in 7- to 12-year-old children with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD; n = 23) and nonanxious controls (n = 25).


METHODS
Children completed a visual probe task in which pairs of face stimuli were displayed for 500 milliseconds and were replaced by a visual probe in the spatial location of one of the faces.


RESULTS
Severely anxious children with GAD showed an attentional bias toward both angry and happy faces. Children with GAD with a milder level of anxiety and nonanxious controls did not show an attentional bias toward emotional faces. Moreover, within the GAD group, attentional bias for angry faces was associated with increased anxiety severity and the presence of social phobia.


CONCLUSIONS
Biased attention toward threat as a function of increased severity in pediatric GAD may reflect differing threat appraisal processes or emotion regulation strategies.
Waters
Allison M
AM
Dr. Waters is with the School of Psychology, Griffith University; Drs. Mogg and Bradley are with the Centre for the Study of Emotion and Motivation, School of Psychology, University of Southampton; and Dr. Pine is with the Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health.. Electronic address: a.waters@griffith.edu.au.
Mogg
Karin
K
Dr. Waters is with the School of Psychology, Griffith University; Drs. Mogg and Bradley are with the Centre for the Study of Emotion and Motivation, School of Psychology, University of Southampton; and Dr. Pine is with the Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health.
Bradley
Brendan P
BP
Dr. Waters is with the School of Psychology, Griffith University; Drs. Mogg and Bradley are with the Centre for the Study of Emotion and Motivation, School of Psychology, University of Southampton; and Dr. Pine is with the Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health.
Pine
Daniel S
DS
Dr. Waters is with the School of Psychology, Griffith University; Drs. Mogg and Bradley are with the Centre for the Study of Emotion and Motivation, School of Psychology, University of Southampton; and Dr. Pine is with the Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health.
D000786:Anger; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010552:Personality Assessment; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D011930:Reaction Time