No Biased Attention to Threat, Incompleteness, and Disgust in Youth with OCD and Anxiety Disorders
Möller, S. LU
; Larsson, Adam
; Möttus, Annika
; Nordin, Gustav
; Björkstrand, Johannes
LU
and Cervin, Matti
LU
(2025)
In Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology
- Abstract
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety disorders are early-onset mental disorders characterized by selective attention and strong emotional reactions. Attentional bias has been proposed to play a role in the development, onset, and maintenance of the disorders, but few studies have included youth with mental disorders, and no study has included more than one clinical group, making it unclear whether biased attention is disorder-specific or transdiagnostic in nature. In the present study, 65 youths with OCD (Mage = 13.6 [2.4], 57% girls), 52 youths with anxiety disorders (Mage = 14.5 [2.6] 83% girls), and 45 youths without a psychiatric disorder (Mage = 13.9 [3.1], 67% girls) completed a modified dot-probe task that included... (More)
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety disorders are early-onset mental disorders characterized by selective attention and strong emotional reactions. Attentional bias has been proposed to play a role in the development, onset, and maintenance of the disorders, but few studies have included youth with mental disorders, and no study has included more than one clinical group, making it unclear whether biased attention is disorder-specific or transdiagnostic in nature. In the present study, 65 youths with OCD (Mage = 13.6 [2.4], 57% girls), 52 youths with anxiety disorders (Mage = 14.5 [2.6] 83% girls), and 45 youths without a psychiatric disorder (Mage = 13.9 [3.1], 67% girls) completed a modified dot-probe task that included threat, incompleteness, and disgust cues. Contrary to our hypotheses, no group exhibited any attentional bias to any emotional cue, no group differences were present, and individual differences in attentional bias were not associated with individual differences in any symptom type. Disgust cues produced slower response times compared to the other emotional cues, but this effect was consistent across all type of trials and present in all three groups. In this study, no support for biased attention in treatment-seeking youth with OCD or anxiety disorders was found, which is in line with recent findings in adults using the dot-probe task. As attentional processes are clearly implicated in the clinical manifestation of these disorders, future research should try to better operationalize and measure relevant processes. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/fe37b2a7-99eb-4f10-9394-1251bffc23a3
- author
- Möller, S.
LU
; Larsson, Adam
; Möttus, Annika
; Nordin, Gustav
; Björkstrand, Johannes
LU
and Cervin, Matti
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-01-06
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- epub
- subject
- in
- Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology
- publisher
- Springer
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85214255720
- pmid:39760791
- ISSN
- 2730-7166
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10802-024-01282-x
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- fe37b2a7-99eb-4f10-9394-1251bffc23a3
- date added to LUP
- 2025-02-07 15:37:07
- date last changed
- 2025-05-03 09:54:33
@article{fe37b2a7-99eb-4f10-9394-1251bffc23a3,
abstract = {{Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety disorders are early-onset mental disorders characterized by selective attention and strong emotional reactions. Attentional bias has been proposed to play a role in the development, onset, and maintenance of the disorders, but few studies have included youth with mental disorders, and no study has included more than one clinical group, making it unclear whether biased attention is disorder-specific or transdiagnostic in nature. In the present study, 65 youths with OCD (Mage = 13.6 [2.4], 57% girls), 52 youths with anxiety disorders (Mage = 14.5 [2.6] 83% girls), and 45 youths without a psychiatric disorder (Mage = 13.9 [3.1], 67% girls) completed a modified dot-probe task that included threat, incompleteness, and disgust cues. Contrary to our hypotheses, no group exhibited any attentional bias to any emotional cue, no group differences were present, and individual differences in attentional bias were not associated with individual differences in any symptom type. Disgust cues produced slower response times compared to the other emotional cues, but this effect was consistent across all type of trials and present in all three groups. In this study, no support for biased attention in treatment-seeking youth with OCD or anxiety disorders was found, which is in line with recent findings in adults using the dot-probe task. As attentional processes are clearly implicated in the clinical manifestation of these disorders, future research should try to better operationalize and measure relevant processes.}},
author = {{Möller, S. and Larsson, Adam and Möttus, Annika and Nordin, Gustav and Björkstrand, Johannes and Cervin, Matti}},
issn = {{2730-7166}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{01}},
publisher = {{Springer}},
series = {{Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology}},
title = {{No Biased Attention to Threat, Incompleteness, and Disgust in Youth with OCD and Anxiety Disorders}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10802-024-01282-x}},
doi = {{10.1007/s10802-024-01282-x}},
year = {{2025}},
}