Study title

Children completed baseline assessments during their preschool year. Follow-up questionnaires were completed by parents and teachers during the child's first half term at school and the first half of their second term at school. Parents also provided daily report of children's anxiety for 14 days over the transition to school. At baseline children completed measures of cognitive functioning, attention bias for emotional stimuli using eyetracking, observation of behavioural inhibition as a temperament trait. Parents completed measures of children's emotional wellbeing, temperament, social functioning and their own anxiety at baseline and follow-up. Demographic characteristics were also collected. It is impossible for us to process all that goes on in the world around us. Instead we pay attention to specific things like the clouds in the sky or the sound of a dog barking. Sometimes we purposefully control what we pay attention to and other times things seem to 'grab' our attention. By acting as a filter, attention plays a fundamental role in shaping our experience of the world. Even if two individuals are exposed to exactly the same environment, their subjective experience can vary considerably, depending on which aspects of the environment they pay attention to. Psychological theory suggests that individuals who have a tendency to pay attention to things that are threatening are more likely to experience anxiety and might be more vulnerable to emotional problems during times of stress. There is already some research supporting this idea but it is all based on work with adults or older children. It is very common for young children to feel fearful or anxious from time to time. However, some children feel so anxious that they cannot do some of the things they would like to do such as approaching a group of children to make friends or staying away from home overnight. Even young children can show early signs of anxiety. Most of these children will go on to become...