This study investigated the link between (a) parents’ social trait and state anxiety and (b) children’s fear and avoidance in social referencing situations in a longitudinal design and considered... Show moreThis study investigated the link between (a) parents’ social trait and state anxiety and (b) children’s fear and avoidance in social referencing situations in a longitudinal design and considered the modulating role of child temperament in these links. Children were confronted with a stranger and a robot, separately with their father and mother at 1 (N = 122), at 2.5 (N = 117), and at 4.5 (N = 111) years of age. Behavioral inhibition (BI) was separately observed at 1 and 2.5 years. Parents’ social anxiety disorder (SAD) severity was assessed via interviews prenatally and at 4.5 years. More expressed anxiety by parents at 4.5 years was not significantly linked to more fear or avoidance at 4.5 years. High BI children were more avoidant at 4.5 years if their parents expressed more anxiety at 2.5 years, and they were more fearful if the parents had more severe forms of lifetime SAD. More severe lifetime forms of SAD were also related to more pronounced increases in child fear and avoidance over time, whereas parents’ expressions of anxiety predicted more pronounced increases in avoidance only from 2.5 to 4.5 years. High BI toddlers of parents with higher state and trait anxiety become more avoidant of novelty as preschoolers, illustrating the importance of considering child temperamental dispositions in the links between child and parent anxiety. Moreover, children of parents with more trait and state anxiety showed more pronounced increases in fear and avoidance over time, highlighting the importance of early interventions targeting parents’ SAD. Show less
Nikolić, M.; Aktar, E.; Bögels, S.; Colonnesi, C.; De Vente, W. 2017
Background: Physiological hyperarousal in social situations is a characteristic of individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD), but so far it has been rarely studied as a biological risk for SAD... Show moreBackground: Physiological hyperarousal in social situations is a characteristic of individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD), but so far it has been rarely studied as a biological risk for SAD. Here, we investigate whether children at high risk for SAD (because of their parents' SAD) display physiological hyperarousal while interacting with a stranger. Also, we examine whether early physiological hyperarousal is related to later child social anxiety. Method: One hundred and seventeen children took part in the stranger-approach task when they were 2.5 and 4.5 years old. Heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), and electrodermal activity (EDA) were measured before, during, and after the conversation with a stranger. Both parents' lifetime SAD status and SAD severity were assessed before the birth of the child. Both parents and children reported on children's social anxiety symptoms when children were 7.5. Results: Children of parents with the lifetime SAD diagnosis did not differ in their physiological activity from children of parents without lifetime SAD. However, children of parents with more severe SAD displayed heightened EDA throughout the task procedure. Increased HR and reduced HRV during the stranger-approach and elevated EDA throughout the task phases were linked to later child social anxiety. Conclusions: Parents' severity of SAD is related to child physiological hyperarousal early in their childhood. In addition, physiological hyperarousal in early childhood predicts later child social anxiety. Together, these findings suggest that early physiological hyperarousal in social situations may pose a risk for later child social anxiety and that physiological hyperarousal, and EDA in particular, may be a biological mechanism in the intergenerational transmission of SAD. Show less
Aktar, E.; Mandell, D.J.; De Vente, W.; Majdandzic, M.; Raijmakers, M.E.J.; Bögels, S.M. 2016
Between 10 and 14 months, infants gain the ability to learn about unfamiliar stimuli by observing others’ emotional reactions to those stimuli, so called social referencing (SR). Joint processing... Show moreBetween 10 and 14 months, infants gain the ability to learn about unfamiliar stimuli by observing others’ emotional reactions to those stimuli, so called social referencing (SR). Joint processing of emotion and head/gaze direction is essential for SR. This study tested emotion and head/gaze direction effects on infants’ attention via pupillometry in the period following the emergence of SR. Pupil responses of 14-to-17-month-old infants (N = 57) were measured during computerized presentations of unfamiliar objects alone, before-and-after being paired with emotional (happy, sad, fearful vs. neutral) faces gazing towards (vs. away) from objects. Additionally, the associations of infants’ temperament, and parents’ negative affect/depression/anxiety with infants’ pupil responses were explored. Both mothers and fathers of participating infants completed questionnaires about their negative affect, depression and anxiety symptoms and their infants’ negative temperament. Infants allocated more attention (larger pupils) to negative vs. neutral faces when the faces were presented alone, while they allocated less attention to objects paired with emotional vs. neutral faces independent of head/gaze direction. Sad (but not fearful) temperament predicted more attention to emotional faces. Infants’ sad temperament moderated the associations of mothers’ depression (but not anxiety) with infants’ attention to objects. Maternal depression predicted more attention to objects paired with emotional expressions in infants low in sad temperament, while it predicted less attention in infants high in sad temperament. Fathers’ depression (but not anxiety) predicted more attention to objects paired with emotional expressions independent of infants’ temperament. We conclude that infants’ own temperamental dispositions for sadness, and their exposure to mothers’ and fathers’ depressed moods may influence infants’ attention to emotion-object associations in social learning contexts. Show less
Aktar, E.; Majdandžić, M.; De Vente, W.; Bögels, S.M. 2013
Background: Anxiety runs in families. Observational learning of anxious behavior from parents with anxiety disorders plays an important role in the intergenerational transmission of anxiety. We... Show moreBackground: Anxiety runs in families. Observational learning of anxious behavior from parents with anxiety disorders plays an important role in the intergenerational transmission of anxiety. We investigated the link between parental anxiety (parental lifetime anxiety disorders and expressed parental anxiety) and toddler fear/avoidance during social referencing (SR) situations. Method: Toddlers (N = 117) participated with both parents (with lifetime social anxiety disorder, other nonsocial anxiety disorders, lifetime comorbid social and other anxiety disorders, or without anxiety disorders) in a longitudinal study. Behavioral inhibition (BI) was measured at 12 months via observational tasks. At 30 months, children were confronted with a stranger and a remote-control robot in SR situations, separately with each parent. Children’s fear and avoidance, and parents’ expressions of anxiety, encouragement, and overcontrol were observed. Results: Toddlers of parents with lifetime social anxiety disorder (alone and comorbid with other anxiety disorders) showed more fear/avoidance in SR situations than toddlers of parents without anxiety disorders, while the effect of other anxiety disorders alone was not significant. Although expressed parental anxiety at 30 months in SR situations did not significantly predict toddlers’ fear/avoidance, higher levels of expressed anxiety at 12 months in SR situations by parents with comorbid social and other anxiety disorders predicted higher levels of fear/avoidance. BI at 12 months predicted toddlers’ fear/avoidance only with mothers, but not with fathers. Conclusions: Parental lifetime social anxiety disorders may be a stronger predictor of children’s fear/avoidance than parents’ expressions of anxiety in SR situations in toddlerhood. End of infancy may be a sensitive time for learning of anxiety from parents with comorbid lifetime social and nonsocial anxiety disorders in SR situations. Fathers are as important as mothers in the transmission of anxiety via SR. Furthermore, children may act relatively free of their early temperament in SR situations with fathers. Show less
