Psychometric properties of threat‐related attentional bias in young children using eye‐tracking

Abstract

Anxiety is one of the most common forms of child psychopathology associated with persistent impairment across the lifespan. Therefore, investigating mechanisms that underlie anxiety in early childhood may improve prevention and intervention efforts.Researchers have linked selective attention toward threat (i.e., attentional bias to threat) with the development of anxiety. However, previous work on attentional bias has used less reliable, reaction time (RT)-based measures of attention. Additionally, few studies have used eye-tracking to measure attentional bias in young children. In the present study, we investigated the psychometric properties of an eye-tracking measure of attentional bias in a sample of young children between 6-and 9-years-old and explored if trait and clinical anxiety were related to attentional biases to threat.Results showed good psychometric properties for threat and neutral attentional biases, comparable to those found in adult eye-tracking studies. Temperamental and clinical anxiety did not significantly relate to threat/neutral dwell time and attentional biases. The significance of these null findings was discussed in relation to existing developmental theories of attentional biases. Future studies should explore if temperamental or clinical anxiety prospectively predict threat attentional bias and the onset of anxiety in older children using a longitudinal design. K E Y W O R D Sanxiety, attentional bias, development, eye-tracking, psychometrics 2 | CHONG aNd MEYER anxiety disorders. It has been suggested that attentional bias toward threat may act as a moderator between fearful temperament and later anxiety and social withdrawal (Morales et al., 2015;Pérez-Edgar et al., 2010;White et al., 2017). Furthermore, reviews by Van Bockstaele et al. (2014) and Morales et al. (2016) have suggested that there may be bidirectional relationships between threat-related attentional bias and anxiety, such that threat-biased attention and anxiety may amplify each other. Indeed, despite strong evidence of a relationship between anxiety and attention, the exact mechanism(s) whereby attention to threat may lead to anxiety (or vice versa) remain unclear (Burris et al., 2019).Recent meta-analyses supported the general finding that anxiety is associated with selective attention toward threatening stimuli in both adults and children, d = 0.21 to 0.45 (Bar-Haim et al., 2007;Dudeney et al., 2015;Lisk et al., 2020). However, there are some mixed findings in the developmental literature: some studies have shown that children with anxiety are more vigilant toward threat

Attention allocation in posttraumatic stress disorder: an eye-tracking study

“…This latter proposition is resonated by the null findings of first-fixation latency and location, and by the reduced psychometric properties of first-fixation dwell time. Finally, the task's sound psychometrics replicate previous research employing different versions of the task in social anxiety disorder (Lazarov et al, 2016), depression (Klawohn et al, 2020; Lazarov et al, 2018), problematic drinking behavior (Soleymani, Ivanov, Mathot, & de Jong, 2020), and pediatric anxiety (Abend et al, 2020; Chong & Meyer, 2020). Importantly, reported psychometrics are striking compared with reaction-time-based attention indices, which show poorer reliability (Rodebaugh et al, 2016; Waechter et al, 2014).…”

“…Gaze patterns were assessed using an established eye-tracking task with acceptable psychometric properties in both depression and anxiety (Chong & Meyer, 2020; Klawohn et al, 2020; Lazarov et al, 2016; Lazarov et al, 2018; Lazarov, Pine, & Bar-Haim, 2017) adapted for the current study. The task was designed and executed using the Experiment Builder software (version 2.1.140; SR Research Ltd., Mississauga, Ontario, Canada).…”

Attention allocation to negatively-valenced stimuli in PTSD is associated with reward-related neural pathways

“…These findings extend considerable other work with this eye-gaze paradigm (e.g. Abend et al, 2020 ; Chong & Meyer, 2020 ; Klawohn et al, 2020 ; Lazarov et al, 2021a ; Lazarov, Abend, & Bar-Haim, 2016 ; Lazarov, Ben-Zion, Shamai, Pine, & Bar-Haim, 2018 ), establishing sustained attention as an important cognitive feature of emotional problems, including in PTSD.…”

“…Eye movements were gauged using a free-viewing eye-tracking task shown to have satisfactory psychometric properties in prior research of attention allocation in both depression and anxiety (Chong & Meyer, 2020;Klawohn et al, 2020;Lazarov et al, 2016Lazarov et al, , 2018Lazarov et al, , 2021a, and also specifically in PTSD (Lazarov et al, 2021b). The task was designed and implemented using the Experiment Builder software (version 2.1.140;SR Research Ltd.,Mississauga,Ontario,Canada).…”

Attention orientation to pleasantness and depressive symptomatology predict autonomic reactivity

“…Although there are still mixed results for the early attention cues (Skinner et al, 2018), the results for indices of maintenance of attention such as total fixation time and number of fixations appear encouraging concerning psychometrics properties (Sears et al, 2019). Consequently, some authors suggest that eye-tracking measures of attentional bias may have better overall psychometric properties as compared than traditional RT measures of attentional bias for children and adults (Chong & Meyer, 2020).…”