Attentional avoidance in peer victimized individuals with and without psychiatric disorders

Benjamin Iffland,Frank Neuner,Angelina Weitkämper,Nicolai J. Weitkämper

doi:10.1186/s40359-019-0284-1

Abstract

BackgroundAttentional biases are a relatively robust phenomenon among clinical populations but less pronounced in healthy participants. However, regarding the components of attentional biases and the directions of attention allocation, there are several inconsistencies in the literature. The present study examined whether these inconsistencies can be traced back to previous experiences of relational peer victimization in clinical populations.MethodsParticipants were subjects with a diagnosed psychiatric disorder (n = 30) and healthy controls (n = 31). Additionally, the sample was divided into two subgroups according to the participants’ reports of previous relational peer victimization (high peer victimization: n = 28; low peer victimization: n = 33). Attentional biases were measured by the Emotional Stroop task and a dot-probe task.ResultsIn both samples, peer victimized participants showed delayed response times when color-naming negative and positive compared to neutral adjectives in the Emotional Stroop task. Likewise, the dot-probe task indicated attentional avoidance of both negative and positive words in peer victimized participants with and without a psychiatric disorder. Interestingly, presence of a psychiatric disorder did not have a significant effect on attentional biases.ConclusionBoth tasks could detect that attentional processes were linked to the experience of peer victimization rather than to the current diagnostic status of the participants. Attentional avoidance of emotional stimuli may prevent victimized individuals from responding adequately to environmental stimuli, which may increase the risk for the development of psychopathology.

Highlights

Attentional biases are a relatively robust phenomenon among clinical populations but less pronounced in healthy participants
The hypotheses that individuals diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder as well as peer victimized individuals show an attentional bias towards negative compared to neutral adjectives were tested
The hypotheses that individuals diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder as well as individuals reporting high levels of peer victimization show attentional biases towards negative compared to neutral adjectives were examined for the three attentional bias indeces of the dot-probe task

Summary

Introduction

Attentional biases are a relatively robust phenomenon among clinical populations but less pronounced in healthy participants. A large body of research has demonstrated that attentional biases are a relatively robust phenomenon among anxious populations, but less pronounced and consistent in non-anxious subjects [1,2,3,4,5]. The most commonly used task to measure attentional bias is the modified or Emotional Stroop task [6] In this task, different types of words (e.g., threatening and neutral) are displayed in varying colors. That is, delayed response times to threat words may be due to enhanced attention towards threat as well as a general delayed responding to threat [7]. These aspects of difficulty in disengaging and facilitated attention (2019) 7:12

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Conclusion