Affect-biased attention is defined as perceptual preference for an object based on its affective saliency. Affect-biased attention has been suggested to have reciprocal connections with other aspects of social-emotional functioning. However, it is not yet known how these connections manifest and develop during infancy and toddlerhood.

The aims of this study were to investigate the associations between affect-biased attention at 8 months and the four aspects of social-emotional functioning being: 1) early behavioral regulatory problems at 3 months (Study I), 2) social-emotional problems and 3) social-emotional competencies at 2 years (Study II) as well as 4) the quality of maternal caregiving behaviors at 8 months (Study III). In addition, to further understand normative development, the change in affect-biased attention was studied between 2.5 and 5 years (Study IV). The sample of this longitudinal study was comprised of children and their parents from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study.

The main findings were that an increased attention bias toward fear at 8 months was associated with less regulatory problems at 3 months and higher socioemotional competencies at 2 years. In addition, a higher quality of maternal caregiving behaviors was related to increased attention toward fear. The substudy on developmental changes occurring between 2.5 and 5 years showed increased attention biases in sustained attention for happy, fearful, angry and sad faces compared to a neutral face.

The results suggest that attention biases for fear and threat may play a different role in well-being during the early years compared to connections observed later in life. In the present study, an increased attention bias toward fear at 8 months was also related to positive aspects of early development. In addition, all studied attention biases, including attention bias toward fear and anger, increased during typical development between 2.5 and 5 years. However, the associations seem to be complex, as increased attention toward fear was also related to a lower quality of maternal caregiving behaviors.