@article{ref1,
title="'Interesting' or 'boring': modifying the implicit association task to measure implicit fire interest in an adolescent community sample",
journal="Acta psychologica",
year="2024",
author="Sambol, Stjepan and Dadswell, Kara and Cook, Sarah and Ball, Michelle",
volume="246",
number="",
pages="e104294-e104294",
abstract="The efficacy of explicit measures in assessing fire interest is often compromised by social desirability biases, presenting a challenge for early intervention programs aimed at preventing firesetting behaviour. The current study aimed to validate a novel fire interest Implicit Association Task (IAT), as a more reliable measure of implicit fire interest in adolescents. An Australian community adolescent sample of 85 participants, aged 10-17 (M = 13.65, SD = 1.81), completed a series of questionnaires, and the novel fire interest IAT. Based on self-reports, participants were classified as firelighters (n = 52) or non-firelighters (n = 33). IAT outcomes revealed an inclination towards associating &quot;fire&quot; with &quot;interesting.&quot; Notably, firelighters, compared to non-firelighters, performed significantly quicker during hypothesis-consistent trials of the IAT where fire-images were paired with interesting-words. Moreover, a weak correlation emerged between the speed of responses in these hypothesis-consistent IAT trials and self-reported fire interest. This investigation is one of the few that examined the efficacy of implicit measures of fire interest and is the first to do so using a modified IAT. With continued refinement, the fire interest IAT could be successfully used to assist with early intervention programs aimed at preventing child firesetting behaviour. PsychINFO Code: 3230.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0001-6918",
doi="10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104294",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104294"
}