Look for good and never give up: a novel attention training treatment for childhood anxiety disorders
Look for good and never give up: a novel attention training treatment for childhood anxiety disorders
Attention bias modification training (ABMT) is a promising treatment for anxiety disorders. Recent evidence suggests that attention training towards positive stimuli, using visual-search based ABMT, has beneficial effects on anxiety and attention biases in children. The present study extends this prior research using distinctive techniques designed to increase participant learning, memory consolidation, and treatment engagement. Fifty-nine clinically anxious children were randomly assigned to the active treatment condition (ATC) (N = 31) or waitlist control condition (WLC) (N = 28). In the ATC, children completed 12 treatment sessions at home on computer in which they searched matrices for a pleasant or calm target amongst unpleasant background pictures, while also engaging in techniques designed to consolidate learning and memory for these search strategies. No contact was made with children in the WLC during the wait period. Diagnostic, parent- and child-reports of anxiety and depressive symptoms, externalising behaviour problems and attention biases were assessed pre- and post-condition and six-months after treatment. Children in the ATC showed greater improvements on multiple clinical measures compared to children in the WLC. Post-treatment gains improved six-months after treatment. Attention biases for angry and happy faces did not change significantly from pre-to post-condition. However, larger pre-treatment attention bias towards threat was associated with greater reduction in anxiety at post-treatment. Also, children who showed greater consolidation of learning and memory strategies during treatment achieved greater improvement in global functioning at post-treatment. Attention training towards positive stimuli using enhanced visual-search procedures appears to be a promising treatment for childhood anxiety disorders.
anxiety, children, attention, modification
111-123
Waters, Allison M.
645fe1e5-8d54-4667-a198-ab6862031291
Zimmer-Gembeck, Melanie J.
31a3b300-dbac-4b84-9cd1-2af22f963520
Craske, Michelle G.
73ebe43a-d149-4bd1-a1ce-8cc69e8c3929
Pine, Daniel S.
debffc1c-1efc-4bcf-81b3-87aadee1047d
Bradley, Brendan P.
bdacaa6c-528b-4086-9448-27ebfe463514
Mogg, Karin
5f1474af-85f5-4fd3-8eb6-0371be848e30
October 2015
Waters, Allison M.
645fe1e5-8d54-4667-a198-ab6862031291
Zimmer-Gembeck, Melanie J.
31a3b300-dbac-4b84-9cd1-2af22f963520
Craske, Michelle G.
73ebe43a-d149-4bd1-a1ce-8cc69e8c3929
Pine, Daniel S.
debffc1c-1efc-4bcf-81b3-87aadee1047d
Bradley, Brendan P.
bdacaa6c-528b-4086-9448-27ebfe463514
Mogg, Karin
5f1474af-85f5-4fd3-8eb6-0371be848e30
Waters, Allison M., Zimmer-Gembeck, Melanie J., Craske, Michelle G., Pine, Daniel S., Bradley, Brendan P. and Mogg, Karin
(2015)
Look for good and never give up: a novel attention training treatment for childhood anxiety disorders.
Behaviour Research and Therapy, 73, .
(doi:10.1016/j.brat.2015.08.005).
(PMID:26310362)
Abstract
Attention bias modification training (ABMT) is a promising treatment for anxiety disorders. Recent evidence suggests that attention training towards positive stimuli, using visual-search based ABMT, has beneficial effects on anxiety and attention biases in children. The present study extends this prior research using distinctive techniques designed to increase participant learning, memory consolidation, and treatment engagement. Fifty-nine clinically anxious children were randomly assigned to the active treatment condition (ATC) (N = 31) or waitlist control condition (WLC) (N = 28). In the ATC, children completed 12 treatment sessions at home on computer in which they searched matrices for a pleasant or calm target amongst unpleasant background pictures, while also engaging in techniques designed to consolidate learning and memory for these search strategies. No contact was made with children in the WLC during the wait period. Diagnostic, parent- and child-reports of anxiety and depressive symptoms, externalising behaviour problems and attention biases were assessed pre- and post-condition and six-months after treatment. Children in the ATC showed greater improvements on multiple clinical measures compared to children in the WLC. Post-treatment gains improved six-months after treatment. Attention biases for angry and happy faces did not change significantly from pre-to post-condition. However, larger pre-treatment attention bias towards threat was associated with greater reduction in anxiety at post-treatment. Also, children who showed greater consolidation of learning and memory strategies during treatment achieved greater improvement in global functioning at post-treatment. Attention training towards positive stimuli using enhanced visual-search procedures appears to be a promising treatment for childhood anxiety disorders.
Text
__userfiles.soton.ac.uk_Library_SLAs_Work_for_ALL's_Work_for_ePrints_Accepted Manuscripts_Waters_Look.pdf
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 14 August 2015
e-pub ahead of print date: 15 August 2015
Published date: October 2015
Keywords:
anxiety, children, attention, modification
Organisations:
Psychology
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 383079
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/383079
ISSN: 0005-7967
PURE UUID: c8b7a360-c2c8-492c-bf9f-5149d3e1f9b9
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 27 Oct 2015 15:42
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 05:21
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Allison M. Waters
Author:
Melanie J. Zimmer-Gembeck
Author:
Michelle G. Craske
Author:
Daniel S. Pine
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics
