TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2006//
TI  - Attentional biases to pain and social threat in children with recurrent abdominal pain
JO  - Journal of pediatric psychology
A1  - Boyer, Margaret C.
A1  - Compas, Bruce E.
A1  - Stanger, Catherine
A1  - Colletti, Richard B.
A1  - Konik, Brian S.
A1  - Morrow, Sara B.
A1  - Thomsen, Asser H.
SP  - 209
EP  - 220
VL  - 31
IS  - 2
N2  - 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.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0146-8693
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/jsj015
ID  - ref1
ER  -