Authors: Joanne GallagherDuffy Sherri MacKay Jim Duffy Meara SullivanThomas Michele PetersonBadali
Publish Date: 2009/08/26
Volume: 37, Issue: 8, Pages: 1165-
Abstract
Fire interest is a risk factor for firesetting This study tested whether a firespecific emotional Stroop task can effectively measure an informationprocessing bias for firerelated stimuli Clinicreferred and nonreferred adolescents aged 13–16 years completed a pictorial “Fire Stroop” as well as a selfreport fire interest questionnaire and several control tasks Results showed a comparatively greater firespecific attentional bias among referred adolescent firesetters b a negative relationship between Fire Stroop attentional bias and selfreported fire interest and c positive correspondence between Fire Stroop attentional bias and selfreported firesetting frequency These findings suggest that instruments that measure an automatic bias for firespecific stimuli may usefully supplement selfreport measures in the assessment and understanding of firesetting behaviorThis study was based on the first author’s doctoral dissertation The research was supported by grants from the Ontario Fire Marshal’s Office the Ontario Public Fire Safety Council and the Toronto Fire Services The authors would like to thank the adolescents who participated in this research project as well as the facility administrators and caregivers who supported our work with these young people Our appreciation also goes to Ron Boyd Darek Stankiewicz Ashiqur Kahn Rich Lowenberg Olesya Falenchuk Tamara Arenovich Douglas Jenkins Andrew Biemiller Michelle Luedee and James Gallagher for their individual contributions to this study
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