Zhang Qiaochu
Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Floor 7, AC1Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health. 2023 May 17;17(1):61. doi: 10.1186/s13034-023-00594-y.
It is unknown how the patterns of negative and positive attentional biases in children predict fear of COVID-19, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study identified profiles of negative and positive attentional biases in children and examined their association with emotional symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.
264 children (girls: 53.8% and boys: 46.2%) of 9-10 years born in Hong Kong or mainland China from a primary school in Shenzhen, People's Republic of China were involved in a two-wave longitudinal study. Children completed the COVID-19 Fear Scale, the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale, and the Attention to Positive and Negative Information Scale to measure fear of COVID-19, anxiety and depression symptoms, and negative and positive attentional biases in classrooms. After six months, they completed the second assessment of fear of COVID-19, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms in classrooms. Latent profile analysis was conducted to reveal distinct profiles of attentional biases in children. A series of repeated MANOVA was performed to examine the association of profiles of attentional biases to fear of COVID-19, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms across 6 months.
Three profiles of negative and positive attentional biases were revealed in children. Children with a "moderate positive and high negative attentional biases" profile had significantly higher fear of the COVID-19 pandemic, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms than children with a "high positive and moderate negative attentional biases" profile. Children with a "low positive and negative attentional biases" profile were not significantly different in fear of COVID-19, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms than those with the other two profiles.
Patterns of negative and positive attentional biases were related to emotional symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. It might be important to consider children's overall patterns of negative and positive attentional biases to identify children at risk of higher emotional symptoms.
在新冠疫情期间，儿童的正负性注意偏向模式如何预测对新冠病毒的恐惧、焦虑症状和抑郁症状尚不清楚。本研究确定了儿童正负性注意偏向的特征，并考察了它们与新冠疫情期间情绪症状的关联。
来自中国深圳一所小学的264名9至10岁儿童（女孩占53.8%，男孩占46.2%），他们出生于中国香港或中国大陆，参与了一项两阶段的纵向研究。孩子们完成了新冠恐惧量表、修订版儿童焦虑抑郁量表以及正负性信息注意量表，以测量在课堂上对新冠病毒的恐惧、焦虑和抑郁症状以及正负性注意偏向。六个月后，他们在课堂上完成了对新冠病毒恐惧、焦虑症状和抑郁症状的第二次评估。进行潜在剖面分析以揭示儿童注意偏向的不同特征。进行了一系列重复多变量方差分析，以检验6个月内注意偏向特征与对新冠病毒的恐惧、焦虑症状和抑郁症状之间的关联。
在儿童中发现了三种正负性注意偏向特征。具有“中度正性和高度负性注意偏向”特征的儿童，相比具有“高度正性和中度负性注意偏向”特征的儿童，对新冠疫情的恐惧、焦虑症状和抑郁症状显著更高。具有“低度正性和负性注意偏向”特征的儿童，在对新冠病毒的恐惧、焦虑症状和抑郁症状方面与其他两种特征的儿童没有显著差异。
在新冠疫情期间，正负性注意偏向模式与情绪症状有关。考虑儿童正负性注意偏向的整体模式对于识别有更高情绪症状风险的儿童可能很重要。
