Attention Shifting Moderates the Association Between Threat Interpretation Bias and Anxiety in Youth

Theory and data implicate attention control and its components, shifting and focusing, as moderators of vulnerability to anxiety. The current study provides the first empirical examination of attention control and its components as moderators of the relation between threat interpretation bias and anxiety severity in clinically referred youth.

N = 64 clinically referred youths ages 7 to 17 years (M = 11.7 years, SD = 2.5; 46.9% female; 85.9% Hispanic) who met criteria for a primary anxiety disorder completed a threat interpretation bias task and self-ratings of attention control, attention shifting, attention focusing, and anxiety severity.

Attention shifting, but not focusing, significantly moderated the association between threat interpretation bias and anxiety severity such that threat interpretation bias was positively associated with anxiety severity at high levels of shifting. A similar trend-level moderation effect was found for total attention control.

This is the first study to identify attention shifting as a moderator of the association between threat interpretation bias and anxiety severity in youth. Findings hold implications for revisions to theoretical models and interventions that target attention processes and interpretation biases in youth with anxiety disorders.