Citation

Boyer MC, Compas BE, Stanger C, Colletti RB, Konik BS, Morrow SB, Thomsen AH. J. Pediatr. Psychol. 2006; 31(2): 209-220.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, 401 Quarry Road, Stanford, California 94305, USA. mboyer@post.harvard.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/jpepsy/jsj015

PMID

15843503

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To test whether children with recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) exhibit subliminal (nonconscious) and supraliminal (conscious) attentional biases to pain-related words, and to determine correlates of these biases. Previous research indicates that individuals attend to disorder-relevant threat words, and in this study, attentional biases to disorder-relevant threat (pain), alternative threat (social threat), and neutral words were compared. METHODS: Participants were 59 children with RAP who completed a computer-based attentional bias task. Participants and their parents also completed questionnaires measuring pain, somatic complaints, anxiety/depression, and body vigilance. RESULTS: Children with RAP showed attentional biases toward subliminal pain-related words and attentional biases away from supraliminal pain-related words. Participants' attentional biases to social threat-related words were marginally significant and also reflected subliminal attention and supraliminal avoidance. Attentional biases were related to parent and child reports of pain, body vigilance, and anxiety/depression. CONCLUSIONS: Children with RAP show nonconscious attention to and conscious avoidance of threat-related words. Their attentional biases relate to individual differences in symptom severity. Implications for models of pediatric pain and future studies are discussed.

Language: en