Depression may influence how children pay attention to emotional expressions, with effects depending on family history, according to a study from Binghamton University, State University of New York, released on June 16. The research is the first of its kind to examine how attentional patterns and depressive symptoms in children predict changes in one another over time.
Researchers at the Mood Disorders Institute at Binghamton University investigate how depression develops in young people and how family history and emotional experiences affect the risk for depression. Their goal is to identify children at risk and improve prevention efforts.
Previous studies have found a link between depression and increased attention to sad faces but have not determined whether these attentional biases are a cause or result of depression. The new study assessed 242 children and their mothers every six months over two years. During each visit, children viewed pairs of faces—one neutral and one emotional (happy, sad, or angry)—while eye-tracking technology recorded which faces they focused on more closely.
Lead author Kelly Gair said, “The real novel piece is that we looked at these transactional relations. Between attentional biases and depressive symptoms, we looked at the way that they were mutually predicting one another across the time points, which is especially novel and hasn't been done before.”
The results indicate that increases in depressive symptoms affect attention differently based on family history. When children whose mothers had a history of major depressive disorder experienced depressive symptoms themselves, their attention became more drawn to sad faces. Brandon Gibb said, “For those who are already at risk, the more these children experience depression themselves, the more they lose their ability to pull their attention away from the sad things around them.”
Gair added: “We know that when you're depressed, it changes what you pay attention to. Our results suggest that these changes may be more long-lasting and may differ depending on family history. One thought is that for children of mothers with depression...these types of facial expressions become even more salient when they experience depression themselves.” In contrast, among lower-risk children—those whose mothers had no history of depression—increases in depressive symptoms led them to pay less attention to happy faces. Gibb said, “In our lower-risk children...experiences of depression are eroding a protective factor, which is how much they pay attention to happy faces.” Researchers plan continued follow-up as participants reach adolescence.
