An Eye-Tracking Study of Attention Biases in Children at High Familial Risk for Depression and Their Parents with Depression

B. Platt, A. Sfärlea, C. Buhl, J. Loechner, J. Neumüller, L. Asperud Thomsen, K. Starman-Wöhrle, E. Salemink, G. Schulte-Körne

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Attention biases (AB) are a core component of cognitive models of depression yet it is unclear what role they play in the transgenerational transmission of depression. 44 children (9-14 years) with a high familial risk of depression (HR) were compared on multiple measures of AB with 36 children with a low familial risk of depression (LR). Their parents: 44 adults with a history of depression (HD) and 36 adults with no history of psychiatric disorder (ND) were also compared. There was no evidence of group differences in AB; neither between the HR and LR children, nor between HD and ND parents. There was no evidence of a correlation between parent and child AB. The internal consistency of the tasks varied greatly. The Dot-Probe Task showed unacceptable reliability whereas the behavioral index of the Visual-Search Task and an eye-tracking index of the Passive-Viewing Task showed better reliability. There was little correlation between the AB tasks and the tasks showed minimal convergence with symptoms of depression or anxiety. The null-findings of the current study contradict our expectations and much of the previous literature. They may be due to the poor psychometric properties associated with some of the AB indices, the unreliability of AB in general, or the relatively modest sample size. The poor reliability of the tasks in our sample suggest caution should be taken when interpreting the positive findings of previous studies which have used similar methods and populations.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)89-108
Number of pages20
JournalChild Psychiatry and Human Development
Volume53
Issue number1
Early online date2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study was funded by "Förderprogramm für Forschung und Lehre" (FöFoLe, grant number 895) of the Medical Faculty of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich and the Hans und Klementia Langmatz Stiftung. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).

Keywords

  • Attention bias
  • Depression
  • Eye-tracking
  • Parent
  • Transgenerational
  • Youth

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'An Eye-Tracking Study of Attention Biases in Children at High Familial Risk for Depression and Their Parents with Depression'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this