Attention Bias and Adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities v1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Attention bias towards threatening faces in adolescents with mild intellectual disabilities and high trait anxiety.
IRAS ID
127747
Contact name
Frances M Irwin
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of East Anglia
Research summary
This research study aims to investigate whether adolescents with an intellectual disability (ID) and high trait anxiety direct their initial attention towards threatening (i.e., angry) and non-threatening (i.e., happy) facial expressions, more than adolescents with ID and low trait anxiety. This is a phenomenon called ’attention bias’. Previous research findings suggest an attention bias towards threatening facial expressions in typically-developing children and adolescents with high trait anxiety (e.g., Telzer et al., 2008). However, research has not investigated biases in adolescents with ID, which may be different to typically developing adolescents, due to facial expression processing differences (e.g., McAlpine, Kendall, & Singh, 1991). It is important to investigate this, as attention biases may cause or maintain anxiety difficulties in children. Anxiety is associated with poor psychosocial functioning, and information about attention biases may help inform intervention.
The research proposes to investigate attention biases towards the facial expressions in adolescents, with mild general ID and high trait anxiety. This is in comparison with adolescents with mild general ID and low trait anxiety. Participants will be aged 13-17, with an IQ score between 50 and 70 (indicating a mild ID). The study will be conducted in a NHS child learning disability service, as well as in local schools specialising in the education of children with ID. Participants will complete the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale - second edition (Reynolds & Richmond, 2008) to assess their trait anxiety, a computerised dot-probe task to assess attention bias towards angry and happy facial expressions, and two tasks to assess their attention allocation and emotion recognition. These will take approximately 80 minutes to complete over two sessions. In addition, parent/guardians will complete a number of questionnaire measures, taking approximately 70 minutes, at home. The study will be funded by the University of East Anglia.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/EM/0319
Date of REC Opinion
29 Aug 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion