Cognitive processing bias of children in a real life stress situation and a neutral situation

The aim of this study was to investigate whether nonclinically anxious children, like anxious adults, favor the processing of threatening or concern-related information. Two experiments, using an emotional Stroop task, were carried out in high anxious and low anxious children aged 8 to 9 to examine whether a medical stressor elicited a processing bias. Results indicated that, independently of the presence of the medical stressor, all children give high priority to the processing of information related to physical harm. Moreover, like anxious adults in other studies, high anxious children showed a processing bias for generally threatening information. This bias was absent in the vicinity of an acute stressor and it was only significant in girls. However, unlike low anxious adults, low anxious girls also showed this processing bias. These results are interpreted in terms of cognitive developmental differences in the ability to inhibit the processing of meaningful information. (C) 1997 Academic Press