Processing bias in children with separation anxiety disorder, social phobia and generalised anxiety disorder

The present study examined processing bias in children suffering from anxiety disorders. Processing bias was assessed using of the emotional Stroop task in clinically referred children with separation anxiety disorder (SAD), social phobia (SP), and/or generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) and normal controls. The aims of the present study were twofold: (a) to test whether clinically anxious children show a bias towards threat stimuli, and (b) to examine whether this bias is domain-specific. No evidence was obtained for either an anxiety-related bias towards threat, or a domain-specificity effect. Clearly, these findings diverge markedly from adult studies and stress the importance of further research on anxiety-related information processing in children.