Study Protocol: Longitudinal Attention and Temperament Study

Abstract

Background: Attention processes may play a central role in shaping trajectories of socioemotional development. Individuals who are clinically anxious or have high levels of trait anxiety sometimes show attention biases to threat. There is emerging evidence that young children also demonstrate a link between attention bias to salient stimuli and broad socioemotional profiles. However, we do not have a systematic and comprehensive assessment of how attention biases, and associated neural and behavioral correlates, emerge and change from infancy through toddlerhood. This paper describes the Longitudinal Attention and Temperament study (LAnTs), which is designed to target these open questions. Method: The current study examines core components of attention across the first 2 years of life, as well as measures of temperament, parental psychosocial functioning, and biological markers of emotion regulation and anxiety risk. The demographically diverse sample (N = 357) was recruited from the area surrounding State College, PA, Harrisburg, PA, and Newark, NJ. Infants and parents are assessed at 4, 8, 12, 18, and 24 months. Assessments include repeated measures of attention bias (via eye-tracking) in both infants and parents, and measures of temperament (reactivity, negative affect), parental traits (e.g., anxiety and depression), biological markers (electrophysiology, EEG, and respiratory sinus arrythmia, RSA), and the environment (geocoding, neighborhood characteristics, perceived stress). Outcomes include temperamental behavioral inhibition, social behavior, early symptom profiles, and cellular aging (e.g., telomere length). Discussion: This multi-method study aims to identify biomarkers and behavioral indicators of attentional and socioemotional trajectories. The current study brought together innovative measurement techniques to capture the earliest mechanisms that may be causally linked to a pervasive set of problem behaviors. The analyses the emerge from the study will address important questions of socioemotional development and help shape future research. Analyses systematically assessing attention bias patterns, as well as socioemotional profiles, will allow us to delineate the time course of any emerging interrelations. Finally, this study is the first to directly assess competing models of the role attention may play in socioemotional development in the first years of life.

Keywords: EEG; anxiety; attention; eye-tracking; infancy; longitudinal; temperament.

Figure 1

Schematic illustration of the three models for the emergence of attention bias in the first years of life based on Field and Lester (17). The integral bias, moderation, and acquisition models differ in the timing, stability, and sensitivity to outside factors for attention processes.

Figure 2

Schematic of the LAnTs cohort. Families are recruited from areas surrounding three locations, State College, PA, Harrisburg, PA, and Newark, NJ. The sample was recruited primarily at 4 months of age, and then assessed again at 8, 12, 18, and 24 months.

Figure 3

LAnTs sample demographics, including racial/ethnic background (left) and income (right).

Figure 4

Histograms noting the distribution of core measures of infant temperament for the higher-order scales of negative affect, regulation, and surgency from the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (left column) and maternal symptoms of anxiety and depression (right column) from the Beck Anxiety and Beck Depression Inventories, respectively, at the point of enrollment.

Figure 5

Histograms noting the distribution of core measures of parental perception of the environment at the point of enrollment. The first two rows present scores from of Parenting Daily Hassles with the frequency, hassles intensity, challenging behaviors, and parenting subscales. The third row presents the distribution of scores from the Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale.