Attention Bias in Middle Childhood: The Impact of Effortful Control and Temperament

Identifying whether a stimulus is threatening or not is critical for staying safe. The faster one can detect a threat, the greater chance there is to avoid any potential danger. Factors contributing to the visual attention of threat are therefore informative. Previous research has examined how aspects of temperament and effortful control interact and affect the attention allocated to threats, especially in clinically anxious populations. However, there is a sparsity of this literature existing for nonclinical populations. My study addressed previous gaps by examining whether negative affect and fear impact an attention bias to threat in children aged 6 through 8 while assessing how attentional control and inhibitory control moderate these relations. A modified visual search task with snakes as the threat was given to the participants after the children’s parents completed questionnaires and the children completed an attentional control task. Results showed that an attentional bias to snakes was seen in the sample. Negative affect as a main effect nor as an interaction effect with attentional control predicted for the attention bias to snakes. Fear predicted for the attention bias to snakes as a main effect. Interestingly, inhibitory control moderated the relation between fear and the attention bias to snakes. Only children with high inhibitory control and high fear predicted for the attention bias to snakes. Findings may indicate children with this temperament are more vulnerable to the onset of anxiety.