Stable Early Maternal Report of Behavioral Inhibition Predicts Lifetime Social Anxiety Disorder in Adolescence

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Abstract

Objective

Behavioral inhibition (bi), a temperamental style identifiable in early childhood, is considered a risk factor for the development of anxiety disorders, particularly social anxiety disorder (sad). however, few studies examining this question have evaluated the stability of bi across multiple developmental time points and followed participants into adolescence—the developmental period during which risk for SAD onset is at its peak. The current study used a prospective longitudinal design to determine whether stable early BI predicted the presence of psychiatric disorders and continuous levels of social anxiety in adolescents. It was hypothesized that stable BI would predict the presence of adolescent psychiatric diagnoses, specifically SAD.

Method

Participants included 126 adolescents aged 14 to 16 years who were first recruited at 4 months of age from hospital birth records. Temperament was measured at multiple time points between the ages of 14 months and 7 years. In adolescence, diagnostic interviews were conducted with parents and adolescents, and continuous measures of adolescent- and parent-reported social anxiety were collected.

Results

Stable maternal-reported early BI was associated with 3.79 times increased odds of a lifetime SAD diagnosis, but not other diagnoses, during adolescence (95% confidence interval 1.18–12.12). Stable maternal-reported early BI also predicted independent adolescent and parent ratings of ongoing social anxiety symptoms.

Conclusions

Findings suggesting that stable maternal-reported early BI predicts lifetime SAD have important implications for the early identification and prevention of SAD.

Section snippets

Participants

Families with young infants were initially contacted by mail using birth records of local hospitals. They were asked to return surveys to ensure that infants were full term and normally developing and that parents were right handed (because of the aims of the larger study). Infants (n = 443) were screened at 4 months of age to assess their reactivity to novel auditory and visual stimuli. Videotapes of the screening procedure were coded for positive and negative affect and motor activity during

Preliminary Analyses

The 4-month temperament groupings were examined for significant relations to the adolescent psychopathology measures. None of the temperament groups were significantly related to adolescent diagnoses or anxiety symptoms (all p's > .25). Therefore, these groupings were not included in any further analysis.

Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children

The percentage of participants with current and lifetime anxiety, mood, and disruptive behavior disorders are presented in Table 1, Table 2, respectively. Rates of disorder did not differ

Discussion

The present study extends existing literature examining temperament as a predictor of adolescent psychopathology by using multiple assessments of temperament in infancy and early childhood and following participants into adolescence—the period of greatest risk for SAD onset, and the point at which data demonstrate robust relatively stable trajectories of anxiety disorders into adulthood.49 Furthermore, this study uses semistructured diagnostic interviews conducted with both adolescents and

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  • Cited by (0)

    This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health R01MH074454 and National Institute of Child Health and Development R01 HD017899 (PI: N.F.).

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