Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, LMU University Hospital, Nußbaumstr. 5a, 80336, Munich, Germany.
Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, LMU, Munich, Germany.
Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2022 Feb;53(1):89-108. doi: 10.1007/s10578-020-01105-2. Epub 2021 Jan 4.
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.
注意偏向（AB）是抑郁认知模型的核心组成部分，但尚不清楚它们在抑郁的代际传递中扮演什么角色。 44 名（9-14 岁）具有高抑郁家族风险（HR）的儿童与 36 名具有低抑郁家族风险（LR）的儿童进行了多次 AB 测量。他们的父母：44 名有抑郁病史的成年人（HD）和 36 名无精神障碍病史的成年人（ND）也进行了比较。AB 方面没有群体差异的证据；HR 和 LR 儿童之间、HD 和 ND 父母之间均无差异。父母和孩子的 AB 之间没有相关性的证据。任务的内部一致性差异很大。点探测任务的可靠性不高，而视觉搜索任务的行为指标和被动观察任务的眼动跟踪指标的可靠性较好。AB 任务与抑郁或焦虑症状之间的相关性很小。当前研究的零发现与我们的预期和以前的大部分文献相矛盾。这可能是由于一些 AB 指标与较差的心理测量特性有关，AB 的可靠性普遍较差，或者样本量相对较小。我们样本中的任务可靠性较差，这表明在解释以前使用类似方法和人群的研究的阳性结果时应谨慎。
