title: Threat bias in attention orienting: evidence of specificity in a large community-based study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Preliminary research implicates threat-related attention biases in paediatric anxiety disorders. However, major questions exist concerning diagnostic specificity, effects of symptom-severity levels, and threat-stimulus exposure durations in attention paradigms. This study examines these issues in a large, community school-based sample. Method A total of 2046 children (ages 6-12 years) were assessed using the Development and Well Being Assessment (DAWBA), Childhood Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and dot-probe tasks. Children were classified based on presence or absence of 'fear-related' disorders, 'distress-related' disorders, and behavioural disorders. Two dot-probe tasks, which differed in stimulus exposure, assessed attention biases for happy-face and threat-face cues. The main analysis included 1774 children.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For attention bias scores, a three-way interaction emerged among face-cue emotional valence, diagnostic group, and internalizing symptom severity (F = 2.87, p < 0.05). This interaction reflected different associations between internalizing symptom severity and threat-related attention bias across diagnostic groups. In children with no diagnosis (n = 1411, mean difference = 11.03, s.e. = 3.47, df = 1, p < 0.001) and those with distress-related disorders (n = 66, mean difference = 10.63, s.e. = 5.24, df = 1, p < 0.05), high internalizing symptoms predicted vigilance towards threat. However, in children with fear-related disorders (n = 86, mean difference = -11.90, s.e. = 5.94, df = 1, p < 0.05), high internalizing symptoms predicted an opposite tendency, manifesting as greater bias away from threat. These associations did not emerge in the behaviour-disorder group (n = 211).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The association between internalizing symptoms and biased orienting varies with the nature of developmental psychopathology. Both the form and severity of psychopathology moderates threat-related attention biases in children.
authors: National Institute of Developmental Psychiatry for Children and Adolescents (INCT-CNPq), Brazil. gsalumjr@gmail.com
authors: G A
authors: GA
authors: Salum
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Mogg
authors: B P
authors: BP
authors: Bradley
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Gadelha
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Pan
authors: A C
authors: AC
authors: Tamanaha
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Moriyama
authors: A S
authors: AS
authors: Graeff-Martins
authors: R B
authors: RB
authors: Jarros
authors: G
authors: G
authors: Polanczyk
authors: M C
authors: MC
authors: do Rosário
authors: E
authors: E
authors: Leibenluft
authors: L A
authors: LA
authors: Rohde
authors: G G
authors: GG
authors: Manfro
authors: D S
authors: DS
authors: Pine
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index