Exploring the Relationship Between Attentional Bias and Symptoms of Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder

Abstract

Purpose: Research has identified attentional bias towards threatening stimuli as a contributing factor to anxiety disorders, and treatment targeting this bias has been shown to reduce symptoms of anxiety (Azriel & Bar-Haim, 2020). Studies have found attentional bias to threats among children with separation anxiety disorder (SAD) when tested with dot-probe tasks, with a stronger bias seen when threats are disorder-congruent (Pergamin-Hight et al., 2015). No study has yet investigated this relationship among adults, despite growing recognition that separation anxiety is frequent in this population. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between SAD symptoms and attentional bias toward threatening stimuli (general and separation-specific) on a dot-probe task in a sample of adults, with the goal of informing targeted treatment for adult separation anxiety disorder (ASAD). Methods: Undergraduate participants (n = 57) completed a measure of ASAD symptom severity (ASA-27) and two versions of the dot-probe task, one with separation-specific threatening words and one with generally threatening words. Attentional bias was tested using detection latency. Results: Spearman’s rho correlations between ASA-27 and separation-specific threat trials (r_s = -.07; p = .62) and general threat trials (r_s = .07; p = .60) were not significant. However, ASAD symptoms were correlated with reduced accuracy on trials following ASAD-specific threat words (r_s = -.38, p = .004), but not general threat words (r_s = -.16, p = .22). Conclusions: We did not find that ASAD symptoms related to attentional bias. However, individuals with more ASAD symptoms were less accurate on trials that involved ASAD-threat words, suggesting an emotional interference effect of disorder-specific threats on task performance.