Investigating the genetic and environmental bases of biases in threat recognition and avoidance in children with anxiety problems

Table 4 Demographic, diagnostic and threat measure variables across children with anxious problems (n = 25) and without (n = 92) subjects

	Anxiety diagnosis	Control subjects with no anxiety problems	Change in model-fit Δχ2(Δdf)	Effect sizes Cohen’s d
Demographics
Mean age	10 years 0 mo.	10 years 1 mo.
% females	56%	47%
Mean SES	0.26 (0.76)	0.35 (0.61)
% Caucasian	91%	98%
Measures of threat processing
Recognition of threat (mean no. correct, SD)
Angry faces	18.63 (3.73)	17.72 (5.89)	Δχ ² (1) = 0.51, p = n.s.
Fear faces	21.29 (6.88)	20.75 (7.15)	Δχ ² (1) = 0.10, p = n.s.
Sad faces	16.08 (5.15)	16.47 (5.90)	Δχ ² (1) = 0.09, p = n.s.
Disgust faces	19.88 (5.11)	16.43 (6.44)	Δχ ²(1) = 6.52,	0.59
			p < 0.05
Avoidance of threat	104.88	90.51		0.41
(mean no. of avoidant responses, SD)	(33.41)	(36.40)	Δχ ²(1) = 6.89, p < 0.01
Block 1
Block 2	18.08	17.14 (3.87)	Δχ ²(1) = 0.56, p = n.s.
Block 3	(4.90)	17.53 (6.66)	Δχ ²(1) = 1.71, p = n.s.
Block 4	20.00	18.32	Δχ ²(1) = 3.56, p = n.s.	0.39
Block 5	(6.25)	(.93)	Δχ ²(1) = 5.42, p < 0.01	0.33
	20.56 (8.38)	18.40	Δχ ²(1) = 6.02, p < 0.05
	23.36 (9.42)	(10.90)
	22.88	19.11
	(10.74)	(11.80)

The recognition of threat measures corresponds to the mean number and standard deviation of correct responses across 32 trials for each face emotion across groups; the avoidance of threat measure corresponds to the mean number and standard deviation of avoidant responses across the 160 trials of the whole task, and across each 32 trials in each Block at Block 2; p = n.s. at Block 3; at Block 4; and at Block 5.

ISSN: 2045-5380