Positive Attention Bias Trained during the Rethink Therapeutic Online Game and Related Improvements in Children and Adolescents’ Mental Health

Bibliographic Data

ID15719929
AuthorsOana A David (DATA Lab, The International Institute for the Advanced Studies of Psychotherapy and Applied Mental Health, Babeş-Bolyai University, 400015 Cluj-Napoca, Romania), Oana David (0000-0001-8706-1778, Babeș-Bolyai University, corresponding author), Silvia Măgurean (0000-0001-9387-0379, Babeș-Bolyai University)
Year2022
Volume9
Issue11
Pages1600-1600
Publication date2022-10-22
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueChildren (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2227-9067 • E-ISSN: 2227-9067
PublisherMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3390/children9111600
PMID36360328
OpenAlexW4307265659
LanguageEN
References cited32

Attentional bias towards positive stimuli is considered a resilience factor for mental health and well-being. The aim of the present study was to analyze the effects of an attentional bias training for positive faces in a preventive therapeutic game for children and adolescents. The sample of 54, which consisted of children and adolescents aged between 10-16 years, played the REThink game, which included an attentional bias training level based on the visual search paradigm, where children had the task to quickly find the happy face among other angry faces. We measured mental health, and positive and negative emotions and analyzed their associations between changes in attention bias. Attentional bias indicators demonstrated acceptable reliability and results showed that increases in attentional bias towards positive faces were associated with improvements in children and adolescents' conduct problems, hyperactivity, and peer relationship problems. Overall, our results support the protective role of training attentional bias towards positive faces as part of a preventive therapeutic game for children and adolescents

Anxiety · Attentional bias · Cognitive psychology · Developmental psychology · Face (sociological concept · Mental health · Psychiatry · Psychological resilience · Task (project management · Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Clinical Psychology · Mental Health Research Topics · Psychology · Social Psychology

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