@article{dd7d45e220e34259af1b0f41b5f68a83,
title = "Biased attention to threat and anxiety: On taking a developmental approach",
abstract = "Several researchers have proposed a causal relation between biased attention to threat and the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders in both children and adults. However, despite the widely documented correlation between attention bias to threat and anxiety, developmental research in this domain is limited. In this review, we highlight the importance of taking a developmental approach to studying attention biases to threat and anxiety. First, we discuss how recent developmental work on attention to threat fits into existing theoretical frameworks for the development of anxiety and how attention biases might interact with other risk factors across development. Then we review the developmental literature on attention bias to threat and anxiety and describe how classic methodologies can be modified to study attention biases in even the youngest infants. Finally, we discuss limitations and future directions in this domain, emphasizing the need for future longitudinal research beginning in early infancy that tracks concurrent developments in both biased attention and anxiety. Altogether, we hope that by highlighting the importance of development in the study of attention bias to threat and anxiety, we can provide a road map for how researchers might implement developmental approaches to studying a potential core mechanism in anxiety.",
keywords = "anxiety, attention bias, attention to threat, development",
author = "Burris, {Jessica L.} and Kristin Buss and Vanessa LoBue and Koraly P{\'e}rez-Edgar and Field, {Andy P.}",
note = "Funding Information: Jessica L. Burris , PhD, is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Rutgers University under the mentorship for Dr. Vanessa LoBue. Her research program investigates the interactions between attention to and neural processing of emotion, and environmental factors in populations at risk for atypical development. Kristin Buss , PhD is Professor of Psychology and Human Development and Family Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on emotional and temperament development with particular focus on fear reactivity and regulation and risk for anxiety-related trajectories from infancy to adolescence. Vanessa LoBue , PhD, is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Rutgers University, Newark. Dr. LoBue directs the Child Study Center and her research program investigates human behavioral responses to emotionally valenced stimuli —specifically to negative or threatening stimuli —and the mechanisms guiding the development of these responses. Koraly P{\'e}rez-Edgar , PhD, is the McCourtney Professor of Child Studies and a Professor of Psychology at The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. P{\'e}rez-Edgar's research focuses on the relations between temperament and psychopathology. In particular, she examines how individual differences in attention can work to ameliorate or exacerbate risks associated with early temperament traits. Andy P. Field is Professor of Quantitative Methods at The University of Sussex. He research focuses broadly on the development of emotional responses in young children including the role of temperament, family, and social environments. He also devotes a lot of his energy to statistics education within and beyond the social sciences. Jessica L. Burris, Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, Smith Hall, Room 321, 101 Warren Street, Newark, NJ 07102, USA. Email: Jessica.burris@rutgers.edu 19 8 2019 7 2019 10 3 2043808719860717 22 12 2018 6 6 2019 {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2019 2019 SAGE Publications Ltd unless otherwise noted. Manuscript content on this site is licensed under Creative Commons Licenses This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ( http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages ( https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage ). Several researchers have proposed a causal relation between biased attention to threat and the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders in both children and adults. However, despite the widely documented correlation between attention bias to threat and anxiety, developmental research in this domain is limited. In this review, we highlight the importance of taking a developmental approach to studying attention biases to threat and anxiety. First, we discuss how recent developmental work on attention to threat fits into existing theoretical frameworks for the development of anxiety and how attention biases might interact with other risk factors across development. Then we review the developmental literature on attention bias to threat and anxiety and describe how classic methodologies can be modified to study attention biases in even the youngest infants. Finally, we discuss limitations and future directions in this domain, emphasizing the need for future longitudinal research beginning in early infancy that tracks concurrent developments in both biased attention and anxiety. Altogether, we hope that by highlighting the importance of development in the study of attention bias to threat and anxiety, we can provide a road map for how researchers might implement developmental approaches to studying a potential core mechanism in anxiety. anxiety attention to threat development attention bias cover-date July-September 2019 Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The manuscript was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health to Dr. Koraly P{\'e}rez-Edgar (R21-MH103627), and to Drs. Koraly P{\'e}rez-Edgar, Kristin Buss, and Vanessa LoBue (R01-MH109692). ORCID iD Jessica L. Burris https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9170-0701 Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2019.",
year = "2019",
month = jul,
doi = "https://doi.org/10.1177/2043808719860717",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "10",
journal = "Journal of Experimental Psychopathology",
issn = "2043-8087",
publisher = "SAGE Publications Ltd",
number = "3",
}