Kiel Elizabeth J, Buss Kristin A
University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Infancy. 2011 Mar;16(2):198-210. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-7078.2010.00036.x.
Although individual differences in reactions to novelty in the toddler years have been consistently linked to risk for developing anxious behavior, toddlers' attention towards a novel, putatively threatening stimulus while in the presence of other enjoyable activities has rarely been examined as a precursor to such risk. The current study examined how attention towards an angry-looking gorilla mask in a room with alternative opportunities for play in 24-month-old toddlers predicted social inhibition when children entered kindergarten. Analyses examined attention to threat above and beyond and in interaction with both proximity to the mask and fear of novelty observed in other situations. Attention to threat interacted with proximity to the mask to predict social inhibition, such that attention to threat most strongly predicted social inhibition when toddlers stayed furthest from the mask. This relation occurred above and beyond the predictive relation between fear of novelty and social inhibition. Results are discussed within the broader literature of anxiety development and attentional processes in young children.
尽管幼儿期对新奇事物反应的个体差异一直与发展焦虑行为的风险相关，但在有其他有趣活动的情况下，幼儿对新奇的、可能具有威胁性的刺激的注意力很少被作为这种风险的先兆进行研究。本研究考察了24个月大的幼儿在有其他玩耍机会的房间里，对一个看起来很愤怒的大猩猩面具的注意力如何预测儿童进入幼儿园时的社交抑制。分析考察了对威胁的注意力，以及在与接近面具的程度和在其他情况下观察到的对新奇事物的恐惧的相互作用中对威胁的注意力。对威胁的注意力与接近面具的程度相互作用，以预测社交抑制，即当幼儿离面具最远时，对威胁的注意力最能强烈预测社交抑制。这种关系在对新奇事物的恐惧与社交抑制之间的预测关系之上出现。研究结果在关于幼儿焦虑发展和注意力过程的更广泛文献中进行了讨论。
