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Journal of Pediatric Psychology Advance Access published online on April 20, 2005
Journal of Pediatric Psychology, doi:10.1093/jpepsy/jsj015
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Journal of Pediatric Psychology © The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Pediatric Psychology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org
Received January 10, 2004
Revised December 13, 2004
Accepted January 31, 2005

Article

Attentional Biases to Pain and Social Threat in Children with Recurrent Abdominal Pain

Margaret C. Boyer PhD1*, Bruce E. Compas PhD2, Catherine Stanger PhD1, Richard B. Colletti MD1, Brian S. Konik PhD1, Sara B. Morrow PhD1, and Alexandra H. Thomsen PhD1

1 University of Vermont and
2 Vanderbilt University

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Margaret C. Boyer, E-mail: bruce.compas{at}vanderbilt.edu


  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.

Keywords: attention; attentional bias; recurrent abdominal pain.
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