Background. Investigators have used various experimental
paradigms such as the Stroop colour
naming test to study how adults with different emotional disorders process
emotional information.
However, to date, little research has been carried out on younger subjects.
Method. In the current experiment, children and adolescents
with post-traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD) and control subjects aged 9–17 years, participated in a modified
Stroop colour naming task.
Results. The results indicated that the children and adolescents
with PTSD showed increased Stroop
interference for trauma-related material relative to neutral words and
to the performance of the
controls.
Conclusions. These findings indicate that attentional bias
to trauma-congruent information is a
function of PTSD in young age groups. The results are discussed with respect
to the literature on
information processing in PTSD.