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    Anxiety and attentional bias to threat in children at increased familial risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder

    Milosavljevic, Bosiljka and Shephard, Elizabeth and Happe, F. and Johnson, Mark H. and Charman, T. (2017) Anxiety and attentional bias to threat in children at increased familial risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 47 (12), pp. 3714-3727. ISSN 0162-3257.

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    Abstract

    Anxiety and threat bias were examined in 6-8-year-old children at familial-risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and low-risk (LR, n = 37) controls. The high-risk (HR) group was divided into those who met diagnostic criteria for ASD (HR-ASD, n = 15) and those who did not (HR-non ASD, n = 24). The HR-ASD group had highest levels of parent-reported anxiety. The HR-non ASD group exhibited increased threat bias on a spatial-cueing task, while the HR-ASD group did not. Anxiety symptoms were associated with both threat bias and ASD severity. These findings suggest that the mechanisms underlying anxiety in HR siblings without ASD are similar to those in non-ASD populations. However, among children with ASD, hypersensitivity to threat may not underlie anxiety symptoms.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): Autism Spectrum Disorder, High-risk siblings, Anxiety, Threat bias
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences
    Depositing User: Mark Johnson
    Date Deposited: 02 Feb 2017 14:46
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:31
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/18042

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