EARLY TEMPERAMENTAL PREDICTORS OF STROOP INTERFERENCE TO THREATENING INFORMATION AT ADOLESCENCE

Adolescents who had been classified as behaviorally inhibited in the s econd year of life were given a version of the Stroop Interference tes t using words from three different affective categories: threatening, positive, and neutral. Examination of the longest latencies produced b y each subject revealed that those adolescents who had been inhibited as young children, compared with those who had been uninhibited, had m ore words with threatening symbolic content among their longest latenc ies. This result suggests that some important aspects of the original temperamental profile have been preserved over an 11-year period. The modified Stroop Interference test may be a sensitive probe for an unde rlying psychological/physiological vulnerability, which is apparently present in inhibited youngsters, that may place a child at risk for la ter anxiety disorder.