• Margaret C Boyer, Bruce E Compas, Catherine Stanger, Richard B Colletti, Brian S Konik, Sara B Morrow, and Alexandra H Thomsen.
• Department of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, 401 Quarry Road, Stanford, California 94305, USA. mboyer@post.harvard.edu
• J Pediatr Psychol. 2006 Mar 1;31(2):209-20.

ObjectivesTo test whether children with recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) exhibit subliminal (nonconscious) and supraliminal (conscious) attentional biases to pain-related words, and to determine correlates of these biases. Previous research indicates that individuals attend to disorder-relevant threat words, and in this study, attentional biases to disorder-relevant threat (pain), alternative threat (social threat), and neutral words were compared.MethodsParticipants were 59 children with RAP who completed a computer-based attentional bias task. Participants and their parents also completed questionnaires measuring pain, somatic complaints, anxiety/depression, and body vigilance.ResultsChildren with RAP showed attentional biases toward subliminal pain-related words and attentional biases away from supraliminal pain-related words. Participants' attentional biases to social threat-related words were marginally significant and also reflected subliminal attention and supraliminal avoidance. Attentional biases were related to parent and child reports of pain, body vigilance, and anxiety/depression.ConclusionsChildren with RAP show nonconscious attention to and conscious avoidance of threat-related words. Their attentional biases relate to individual differences in symptom severity. Implications for models of pediatric pain and future studies are discussed.

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