Anxiety-related attentional biases in childhood

Research indicates that highly anxious adults show an attentional bias favouring emotionally threatening over emotionally neutral stimuli. In contrast, low-anxious adults show a bias favouring neutral over threatening stimuli. Such attentional biases may play important roles in the regulation and dysregulation of anxiety. Therefore, they have substantial potential to foster or protect against the development, maintenance, or intensification of anxiety disorders. Evidence from several recent studies suggests that such biases also occur among children. This paper reviews these studies, placing particular emphasis on methodological issues that must be considered when applying methods from studies of adults to children of varying ages.