The Influence of Trait Anxiety in Children on Attentional Biases for Emotional Faces

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of trait anxiety in children, on attentional biases to emotional facial expressions (angry, happy, neutral).

30 children with high trait anxiety and 30 children with low trait anxiety were selected using Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children and a semi-structured interview. The participants completed the Pictorial Version of the Modified Dot-probe Task. Data were analyzed using multifactor analysis of variance and repeated measures analysis of variance.

This study showed that the interaction between trait anxiety and scores of attentional bias, are significant only for angry facial expressions (p<0.001) and are not significant for other facial expressions. Also, the level of trait anxiety has a positive significant correlation with scores of attentional bias toward angry faces (p<0.001).

Children with high anxiety traits show a significant vigilance toward angry faces, while children with low anxiety traits show an attentional bias away from the same faces.