Fearful Temperament and Adolescent Anxiety Symptoms: The Roles of Attention Biases and Frontal EEG Asymmetry

• In Event: Poster Session 05
  In Poster Session: PS 05 Topic - Developmental Psychopathology

Abstract

Fearful temperament is as an early, robust predictor of children’s anxiety symptoms (Buss et al., 2013). It is critical to examine factors that link and alter the relationship between fearful temperament and anxiety, as not all fearful children develop anxiety. Attention biases to threat (AB) refers to the tendency to selectively orient to threating stimuli and may act as a proximal mechanism that mediates the effects of temperament on anxiety (Lau & Water, 2017). Frontal EEG asymmetry (FA) refers to the asymmetrical frontal activity and has been related to attentional processing in the frontal-parietal network (Sauseng et al., 2011), thus the possibility that FA affects anxiety through its influences on AB warrants further investigation. Individual differences in FA may be more pronounced in emotional challenging tasks than at baseline (Coan et al., 2006). Our study represents the first step in examining the moderating effect of task-related FA on the association between fearful temperament and anxiety through AB during childhood to adolescence using a longitudinal design.

The study included 78 children (33 boys, 45 girls). At the 9-year-old visit, fearful temperament was measured with the fear subscale of EATQ-R (Ellis & Rothbart, 2001). The baseline EEG was accomplished as the child watched a 3-minute video. The task EEG was recorded as the child engaged in a visual search task. FA was calculated by subtracting the asymmetry scores at baseline from task. Positive and negative FA values indicate greater left and right activation from baseline to task, respectively. During the adolescent-visit, AB was measured using the dot-probe task. Positive scores indicated AB towards threat and negative scores reflected AB away from threat. Adolescent anxiety was measured with RCADS (Chorpita et al., 2000).

A moderated mediation model was examined via Mplus 7.4. The model fitted the data well, χ2 = 1.55, p = .50, CFI = 1.00, RMSEA = .00 (Fig 1). FA at 9 years moderated the association between fear at 9 years and AB during adolescence (b = -4.88, p = .05). Specifically, fear predicted AB away from threat when children showed greater left activation from baseline to task (b = -9.03, p = .04; Fig 2). In addition, FA moderated the association between fear and anxiety (b = -2.63, p = .03). Specifically, fear at age 9 predicted adolescent anxiety only when children showed greater right activation from baseline to task (b = 6.65, p = .00) at 9 years (Fig 2).

The results are consistent with the motivational direction model documenting the relation between right FA and avoidance-related psychopathology (e.g., Peltola et al., 2014). Children with increased fear at age 9 are at higher risk of adolescent anxiety if exhibiting right FA at 9 years. It adds to the current literature by showing the moderating effect of FA between fear and AB during adolescence. Having left FA facilitates children to disengage from threat, which may contribute to the resilience process of anxiety. The study provides important implications for early screening and intervention of children with high risk of anxiety.

Authors

• Ran Liu, Columbia University
  Presenting Author

• Mohamed G. Zerrouk, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Martha Ann Bell, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
  Non-Presenting Author