Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Sustained Attention and Individual Differences in Adolescents’ Mood and Physiological Reactivity to Stress

  • Published:
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Biased attention to sad faces is associated with depression in adults and is hypothesized to increase depression risk specifically in the presence, but not absence, of stress by modulating stress reactivity. However, few studies have tested this hypothesis, and no studies have examined the relation between attentional biases and stress reactivity during adolescence, despite evidence that this developmental window is marked by changes in depression risk, stress, and the function of attention. Seeking to address these limitations, the current study examined the impact of adolescents’ sustained attention to facial displays of emotion on individual differences in both mood reactivity to real-world stress and physiological (i.e., respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA]) reactivity to a laboratory-based stressor. Consistent with vulnerability-stress models of attention, greater sustained attention to sad faces was associated with greater depressive reactions to real-world stress. In addition, there was preliminary evidence from exploratory analyses that the impact of sustained attention on mood and/or physiological reactivity may be moderated by adolescents’ age and sex such that relations are stronger for older adolescents and girls. The results of this study contribute to the current body of research on the role of attention in stress reactivity and depression risk and highlight the importance of considering age differences when examining these relations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Poor split-half reliability was observed for time to disengage from angry, happy, and sad faces (.46, .62, and .44, respectively) and time to engage with angry, happy, and sad faces (.75, .42, .50). Therefore, the current study only focused on average gaze duration across the 3000 ms of passive face viewing prior to each trial as a measure of sustained attention to emotional faces.

  2. RSA was only examined during the anticipation phase of the TSST for two reasons. First, speaking aloud leads to changes in respiration that impact RSA (Beda et al., 2007). Therefore RSA during the speech and math phases of the TSST could be adulterated by changes in respiration. Second, the anticipation phase of the TSST is the only phase of the TSST that can be truly standardized, as feedback that youth receive during the speech and math phases is, in part, due to their performance.

  3. Four participants did not exhibit an average increase in negative affect across the TSST. However, all results were maintained when excluding these participants.

References

  • Abramson, L. Y., Alloy, L. B., Hankin, B. L., Haeffel, G. J., MacCoon, D. G., & Gibb, B. E. (2002). Cognitive vulnerability-stress models of depression in a self-regulatory and psychobiological context. In I. H. Gotlib & C. L. Hammen (Eds.), Handbook of Depression (pp. 268–294) Guilford.

  • Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alkon, A., Goldstein, L. H., Smider, N., Essex, M. J., Kupfer, D. J., Boyce, W. T., Ablow, J. C., Alkon, A., Armstrong, J. M., Harrington, R., Kraemer, H. C., Measelle, J. R., Nelson, C. A., Quas, J., & Steinberg, L. (2003). Developmental and contextual influences on autonomic reactivity in young children. Developmental Psychobiology, 42(1), 64–78.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong, T., & Olatunji, B. O. (2012). Eye tracking of attention in the affective disorders: A meta-analytic review and synthesis. Clinical Psychology Review, 32(8), 704–723.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Beauchaine, T. P. (2001). Vagal tone, development, and Gray’s motivational theory: Toward an integrated model of autonomie nervous system functioning in psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 13(2), 183–214.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beauchaine, T. P. (2015). Respiratory sinus arrhythmia: A transdiagnostic biomarker of emotion dysregulation and psychopathology. Current Opinion in Psychology, 3, 43–47.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Beda, A., Jandre, F. C., Phillips, D. I. W., Giannella-Neto, A., & Simpson, D. M. (2007). Heart-rate and blood-pressure variability during psychophysiological tasks involving speech: Influence of respiration. Psychophysiology, 44(5), 767–778.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beevers, C. G., & Carver, C. S. (2003). Attentional bias and mood persistence as prospective predictors of dysphoria. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27(6), 619–637.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beevers, C. G., Lee, H., Wells, T. T., Ellis, A. J., & Telch, M. J. (2011). Association of predeployment gaze bias for emotion stimuli with later symptoms of PTSD and depression in soldiers deployed in Iraq. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 168(7), 735–741.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bistricky, S. L., Ingram, R. E., & Atchley, R. A. (2011). Facial affect processing and depression susceptibility: Cognitive biases and cognitive neuroscience. Psychological Bulletin, 137(6), 998–1028.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Boyce, W. T., Quas, J., Alkon, A., Smider, N. A., Essex, M. J., Kupfer, D. J., Ablow, J. C., Armstrong, J. M., Goldstein, L. H., Harrington, R., Kraemer, H. C., Measelle, J. R., Nelson, C., & Steinberg, L. (2001). Autonomic reactivity and psychopathology in middle childhood. British Journal of Psychiatry, 179(2), 144–150.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, R. C., Zayas, L. H., & McKee, M. D. (2006). Mother-infant interaction, life events and prenatal and postpartum depressive symptoms among urban minority women in primary care. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 10(2), 139–148.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brantley, P. J., Jones, G. N., Boudreaux, E., & Catz, S. (1997). Weekly stress inventory. In C. P. Zalaquett & R. J. Wood (Eds.), Evaluating stress: A book of resources Scarecrow.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brantley, P. J., Waggoner, C. D., Jones, G. N., & Rappaport, N. B. (1987). A daily stress inventory: Development, reliability, and validity. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 10(1), 61–73.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Britton, J. C., Bar-Haim, Y., Clementi, M. A., Sankin, L. S., Chen, G., Shechner, T., Norcross, M. A., Spiro, C. N., Lindstrom, K. M., & Pine, D. S. (2013). Training-associated changes and stability of attention bias in youth: Implications for attention Bias modification treatment for pediatric anxiety. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 4, 52–64.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Burt, K. B., & Obradović, J. (2013). The construct of psychophysiological reactivity: Statistical and psychometric issues. Developmental Review, 33(1), 29–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Camm, A. J., Malik, M., Bigger, J. T., Gunter, B., Cerutti, S., & Choen, R. (1996). Heart rate variability: Standards of measurement, physiological interpretation, and clinical use. Task force of the European Society of Cardiology and the north American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology. European Heart Journal, 17(3), 354–381.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Raedt, R., & Koster, E. (2010). Understanding vulnerability for depression from a cognitive neuroscience perspective: A reappraisal of attentional factors and a new conceptual framework. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 32(1), 50–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Disner, S. G., Beevers, C. G., Haigh, E. A. P., & Beck, A. T. (2011). Neural mechanisms of the cognitive model of depression. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 12(8), 467–477.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • El-Sheikh, M. (2005). Stability of respiratory sinus arrhythmia in children and young adolescents: A longitudinal examination. Developmental Psychobiology, 46(1), 66–74.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Elgersma, H. J., Koster, E. H. W., Vugteveen, J., Hoekzema, A., Penninx, B. W. J. H., Bockting, C. L. H., & de Jong, P. J. (2019). Predictive value of attentional bias for the recurrence of depression: A 4-year prospective study in remitted depressed individuals. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 114, 25–34.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ge, X., Lorenz, F. O., Conger, R. D., Elder, G. H., & Simons, R. L. (1994). Trajectories of stressful life events and depressive symptoms during adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 30(4), 467–483.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gee, D. G., Humphreys, K. L., Flannery, J., Goff, B., Telzer, E. H., Shapiro, M., Hare, T. a., Bookheimer, S. Y., & Tottenham, N. (2013). A developmental shift from positive to negative connectivity in human amygdala – Prefrontal circuitry. Journal of Neuroscience, 33(10), 4584–4593.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gibb, B. E., Benas, J. S., Grassia, M., & McGeary, J. (2009). Children’s attentional biases and 5-HTTLPR genotype: Potential mechanisms linking mother and child depression. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 38, 415–426.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gibb, B. E., & Coles, M. E. (2005). Cognitive vulnerability-stress models of psychopathology: A developmental perspective. In B. L. Hankin & J. R. Z. Abela (Eds.), Development of psychopathology: A vulnerability-stress perspective. (pp. 104–135). Sage.

  • Gibb, B. E., McGeary, J. E., & Beevers, C. G. (2016). Attentional biases to emotional stimuli: Key components of the RDoC constructs of sustained threat and loss. American Journal of Medical Genetics, Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics, 171(1), 65–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gotlib, I. H., & Joormann, J. (2010). Cognition and depression: Current status and future directions. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 6, 285–312.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gray, S. A. O., Theall, K., Lipschutz, R., & Drury, S. (2017). Sex differences in the contribution of respiratory sinus arrhythmia and trauma to children’s psychopathology. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 39(1), 67–78.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hankin, B. L., Abramson, L. Y., Moffitt, T. E., Silva, P. A., McGee, R., & Angell, K. E. (1998). Development of depression from preadolescence to young adulthood: Emerging gender differences in a 10-year longitudinal study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 107(1), 128–140.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hankin, B. L., Mermelstein, R., & Roesch, L. (2007). Sex differences in adolescent depression: Stress exposure and reactivity models. Child Development, 78(1), 279–295.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Harkness, K. L., & Monroe, S. M. (2016). The assessment and measurement of adult life stress: Basic premises, operational principles, and design requirements. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 125(5), 727–745.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hollenstein, T., McNeely, A., Eastabrook, J., Mackey, A., & Flynn, J. (2012). Sympathetic and parasympathetic responses to social stress across adolescence. Developmental Psychobiology, 54(2), 207–214.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Joormann, J., & Vanderlind, W. M. (2014). Emotion regulation in depression: The role of biased cognition and reduced cognitive control. Clinical Psychological Science, 2(4), 402–421.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirschbaum, C., Pirke, K. M., & Hellhammer, D. H. (1993). The ‘Trier social stress test’--a tool for investigating psychobiological stress responses in a laboratory setting. Neuropsychobiology, 28(1–2), 76–81.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kovacs, M. (1981). Rating scales to assess depression in school-aged children. Acta Paedopsychiatrica, 46(5–6), 305–315.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Larson, R., & Ham, M. (1993). Stress and “storm and stress” in early adolescence: The relationship of negative events with dysphoric affect. Developmental Psychology, 29(1), 130–140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lemoult, J., Joormann, J., Kircanski, K., & Gotlib, I. H. (2016). Attentional bias training in girls at risk for depression. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 57(11), 1326–1333.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, Z., Snieder, H., Su, S., Ding, X., Thayer, J. F., Treiber, F. A., & Wang, X. (2009). A longitudinal study in youth of heart rate variability at rest and in response to stress. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 73(3), 212–217.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • MacLeod, C., Mathews, A., & Tata, P. (1986). Attentional bias in emotional disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95(1), 15–20.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mclaughlin, K. A., Alves, S., & Sheridan, M. A. (2014). Vagal regulation and internalizing psychopathology among adolescents exposed to childhood adversity. Developmental Psychobiology, 56(5), 1036–1051.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Girgus, J. S. (1994). Emergence of gender differences in depression during adolescence. Psychological Bulletin, 115(3), 423–443.

    Google Scholar 

  • Obradović, J. (2012). How can the study of physiological reactivity contribute to our understanding of adversity and resilience processes in development? Development and Psychopathology, 24(2), 371–387.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Obradović, J., Bush, N. R., & Boyce, W. T. (2011). The interactive effect of marital conflict and stress reactivity on externalizing and internalizing symptoms: The role of laboratory stressors. Development and Psychopathology, 23(1), 101–114.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Platt, B., Waters, A. M., Schulte-Koerne, G., Engelmann, L., & Salemink, E. (2017). A review of cognitive biases in youth depression: Attention, interpretation and memory. Cognition and Emotion, 31(3), 462–483.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sanchez, A., Romero, N., & De Raedt, R. (2017). Depression-related difficulties disengaging from negative faces are associated with sustained attention to negative feedback during social evaluation and predict stress recovery. PLoS One, 12(3), e0175040.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Sanchez, A., Vazquez, C., Marker, C., LeMoult, J., & Joormann, J. (2013). Attentional disengagement predicts stress recovery in depression: An eye-tracking study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 122(2), 303–313.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schafer, J. L., & Graham, J. W. (2002). Missing data: Our view of the state of the art. Psychological Methods, 7(2), 147–177. https://doi.org/10.1037//1082-989X.7.2.147.

  • Schiweck, C., Piette, D., Berckmans, D., Claes, S., & Vrieze, E. (2019). Heart rate and high frequency heart rate variability during stress as biomarker for clinical depression. A systematic review. Psychological Medicine, 492(2), 200–211.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shih, J. H., Eberhart, N. K., Hammen, C. L., & Brennan, P. A. (2006). Differential exposure and reactivity to interpersonal stress predict sex differences in adolescent depression. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 35(1), 103–115.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2007). Using multivariate statistics (5th ed.) Pearson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thayer, J. F., & Lane, R. D. (2000). A model of neurovisceral integration in emotion regulation and dysregulation. Journal of Affective Disorders, 61(3), 201–216.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Waters, A. M., Candy, E. M., & Candy, S. G. (2018). Attention bias to threat in mothers with emotional disorders predicts increased offspring anxiety symptoms: A joint cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis. Cognition and Emotion, 32(4), 892–903.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Woody, M. L., James, K., Foster, C. E., Owens, M., Feurer, C., Kudinova, A. Y., & Gibb, B. E. (2019). Children’s sustained attention to emotional facial expressions and their autonomic nervous system reactivity during parent-child interactions. Biological Psychology, 142, 37–44.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Woody, M. L., Owens, M., Burkhouse, K. L., & Gibb, B. E. (2016). Selective attention toward angry faces and risk for major depressive disorder in women: Converging evidence from retrospective and prospective analyses. Clinical Psychological Science, 4, 206–215.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yang, W., Zhang, J. X., Ding, Z., & Xiao, L. (2016). Attention bias modification treatment for adolescents with major depression: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 55(3), 208–218.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yim, I. S., Quas, J. A., Rush, E. B., Granger, D. A., & Skoluda, N. (2015). Experimental manipulation of the Trier social stress test-modified (TSST-M) to vary arousal across development. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 57, 61–71.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This project was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE1144464 awarded to C. Feurer. We would like to thank Serah Narine, Jemy Paulson, Margarita Ashkinazi, Lillian Harrington, Louis Cafaro, Stephanie Mcgory, and Kevin Kunz for their help in conducting assessments for this project.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Binghamton University (SUNY), Binghamton, NY, 13902-6000, USA

    Cope Feurer, Kiera M. James, Claire E. Foster & Brandon E. Gibb

Authors
  1. Cope Feurer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kiera M. James
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Claire E. Foster
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Brandon E. Gibb
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cope Feurer.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All study procedures were approved by the university Institutional Review Board.

Informed Consent

Informed consent and assent were obtained from all parents and adolescents.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(DOCX 35 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Feurer, C., James, K.M., Foster, C.E. et al. Sustained Attention and Individual Differences in Adolescents’ Mood and Physiological Reactivity to Stress. J Abnorm Child Psychol 48, 1325–1336 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-020-00679-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-020-00679-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation