The role of attentional biases to threat and attentional bias alignment in distinct measures of emotional resilience

We examined attentional biases to threat as a potential cognitive mechanism to explain why some emerging adults attending university may demonstrate greater emotional resilience than others. Specifically, we examined whether (1) a reduced attentional bias to threat or (2) greater attentional bias alignment to threats signalling controllable relative to uncontrollable dangers, was associated with greater emotional resilience, and whether these relationships were partially accounted for by a reduced negative mood state during stress. Recognising that resilience is operationalised in the literature in various ways, participants' (final n = 142) first attended an experimental session where emotional resilience was measured as a trait (self-report scale), an outcome (using the residual approach), and as a transient dynamic construct (using a lab-based stressor). In a second session, participants completed a Dual-Probe Attentional Bias Alignment Assessment task which assessed attention to threat cues signalling an impending danger that could be controlled through adaptive action in some trials, but not others. Negative mood state experienced during this task was measured. Results revealed that the positive association between attentional bias alignment and the outcome-based resilience measure was fully accounted for by a reduced negative mood state. Secondly, attentional bias alignment was positively associated with the transient resilience measure. This study is the first to identify flexibility in attentional processing aligned with variation in danger controllability as a potential mechanism underpinning emotional resilience. Our findings suggest that different mechanisms may underpin varying resilience measures, emphasizing the need for future research to examine and compare these distinct operationalisations.