Intergenerational transmission of social anxiety and the role of behavioral inhibition and parental social anxiety

Background: Parental verbal communication of threat is regularly associated with (sub)clinical symptoms of anxiety in children. This experimental study aims to investigate the effect of parental threatening and safe information about strangers on the fear and avoidance behavior of their child, in a non-clinical sample. It is also examined whether behavioral inhibition, parental social anxiety and their interaction lead to more socially anxious behavior of the child. Method: A sample of 68 children between 4 and 6 years old performed a social performance task in front of two strangers. Before the task, the parent was asked to transfer verbal threatening or safe information about the strangers to their child. After the task, the strangers interacted with the children separately from each other. Results: Exposure to verbal expression of threat about strangers did not change the anxious or avoidant behavior of children towards those strangers. However, the interaction of behavioral...Show moreBackground: Parental verbal communication of threat is regularly associated with (sub)clinical symptoms of anxiety in children. This experimental study aims to investigate the effect of parental threatening and safe information about strangers on the fear and avoidance behavior of their child, in a non-clinical sample. It is also examined whether behavioral inhibition, parental social anxiety and their interaction lead to more socially anxious behavior of the child. Method: A sample of 68 children between 4 and 6 years old performed a social performance task in front of two strangers. Before the task, the parent was asked to transfer verbal threatening or safe information about the strangers to their child. After the task, the strangers interacted with the children separately from each other. Results: Exposure to verbal expression of threat about strangers did not change the anxious or avoidant behavior of children towards those strangers. However, the interaction of behavioral inhibition and parental social anxiety was significant, such that higher levels of behavioural inhibition in combination with less social anxiety in parents were significantly associated with more social anxiety towards the stranger about whom children receive safe information. Conclusion: Intergenerational transmission of social anxiety occurs when children who have a higher behavioral inhibition in combination with less socially anxious parents receive positive information about a stranger. It is concluded that the intergenerational transmission of social anxiety is dependent on multiple variables concerning the parents and the child.Show less

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Intergenerational transmission of social anxiety and the role of behavioral inhibition and parental social anxiety