Looking for the negative: Depressive symptoms in adolescent girls are associated with sustained attention to a potentially critical judge during in vivo social evaluation.

ABSTRACT: Attention biases toward negative stimuli are implicated in the development and maintenance of depression. However, research is needed to understand how depression affects attention biases as they unfold in a dynamic social environment, particularly during adolescence when depression rates significantly increase due to enhanced reactivity to social stress. To examine attention biases in a live, socially evaluative environment, 26 adolescent girls from the community gave a speech in front of a potentially critical judge and a positive judge while wearing mobile eye tracking glasses. Girls' depressive symptoms were measured using the Moods and Feelings Questionnaire. Across the sample, girls looked at the positive judge more frequently and for longer periods of time compared with the potentia

SUBMITTER: Woody ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7083081 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature