The development of social anxiety, which is highly prevalent and persistent in adolescents, heavily depends on predisposing factors, such as behavioral inhibition, and environmental influences,...Show moreThe development of social anxiety, which is highly prevalent and persistent in adolescents, heavily depends on predisposing factors, such as behavioral inhibition, and environmental influences, such as parenting, particularly via verbal learning. This study investigated whether social fears can be verbally transmitted from parents to their adolescent children (N = 72, M = 11.67 years; 54.5% girls) by exploring whether standardized threat information about a stranger leads to higher fear beliefs in contrast to safety information about another stranger, and whether behavioral inhibition has a moderating role by exacerbating this verbal transmission of fear. The adolescents were provided with this information before performing a social interaction task with each of two strangers acting as judges, who were unaware whether they were paired with threat or safety information. Behavioral inhibition scores were assessed via parent and child reports prior to the verbal threat or safety information transfer, while fear beliefs were reported by the adolescents after the social task. In line with previous literature, adolescents reported higher fear beliefs for the strangers associated with threat information than for those associated with safety information. No significant moderation by behavioral inhibition was found, though parentally reported child behavioral inhibition positively predicted overall fear beliefs. Conclusively, social fears may be verbally transmitted from parents to adolescents via threat or safety information affecting fear beliefs. Limitations are discussed and further research to ascertain the full scope of this effect and implications is encouraged.Show less
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most prevalent anxiety disorders and can be conceptualized as the fear of scrutiny by others. SAD comes with elevated heart rate (HR) in the feared...Show moreSocial anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most prevalent anxiety disorders and can be conceptualized as the fear of scrutiny by others. SAD comes with elevated heart rate (HR) in the feared social situation. Additionally, it has been found that individuals with SAD perceive their HR to be higher. Therefore, high perceived HR serves as an indicator of how much anxiety an individual is experiencing. The development of SAD is impacted by verbal transmission of fears. This presents the idea that exposure to verbal threat information about a stimulus influences the child’s development of fears. Especially parents and their level of anxiety play a significant role in this pathway. The present study investigates the verbal transmission pathway by looking at the influence of parental transmission of safety and threat information on children’s HR and their perception of HR. Primary caregivers were instructed to transmit verbal or threat information to their child (N = 64, Mage = 11.67) regarding two strangers that the child faced in the lab. Fear response to the strangers was measured with HR and a visual analogous scale indicating the perceived HR. Parents also reported their own social anxiety, which was included as a moderating variable. No significant influence of the transmission of verbal information was found on HR and perceived HR. Additionally, parental social anxiety did not act as a significant moderator when it comes to the transmission of verbal information on HR or perceived HR. The lack of significant findings underlines the need to further investigate the influence of parental verbal transmission of information on child’s HR and perceived HR and the moderating role of parental social anxiety in these pathways.Show less
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is among the most common and debilitating forms of anxiety disorders. Fears of social situations can be acquired in childhood and adolescence through parent verbal...Show moreSocial anxiety disorder (SAD) is among the most common and debilitating forms of anxiety disorders. Fears of social situations can be acquired in childhood and adolescence through parent verbal information transmission. Acquired social fear in children can manifest itself in indices of fear, such as reported fear beliefs and observed avoidance behavior. This thesis focused on how parental verbal expressions of threat and safety influences the fear beliefs and avoidance behavior of children towards strangers (N = 72, Mage = 11.67 years, 41 girls). The parent was instructed to describe two strangers (who were unaware of their condition) with threat or safety statements. The children then performed three social tasks with each stranger. During these tasks their avoidant behavior was observed and after the tasks fear beliefs for each stranger were reported. Parents were also asked to report on symptoms of SAD to investigate whether this has a moderating role in child social fears. Results show that children reported significantly more fear beliefs for the stranger paired with threat information than the stranger with safety information, but there were no significant differences in avoidance behaviors between the two strangers. In addition, the findings did not reveal a moderating role of parental SAD. We conclude that verbal expressions of threat contribute to more fear beliefs towards strangers, but these fear beliefs are not translated into more avoidance behavior. The findings reveal the need for more research on avoidance in social situations and the role of parent SAD in a clinical sample.Show less
Ondanks dat sociale angststoornissen een grootschalig probleem zijn onder de bevolking, is nog niet veel bekend over hoe sociale angst zich ontwikkelt. Hoewel er meerdere risicofactoren betrokken...Show moreOndanks dat sociale angststoornissen een grootschalig probleem zijn onder de bevolking, is nog niet veel bekend over hoe sociale angst zich ontwikkelt. Hoewel er meerdere risicofactoren betrokken zijn bij de ontwikkeling van sociale angst blijkt uit eerder onderzoek dat de sociale omgeving een grote invloed heeft. Kinderen leren sociale angst vooral aan door verbale uitspraken van de directe nabije omgeving, waarbij de ouders een grote invloed blijken te hebben. In dit onderzoek is gekeken naar het effect van verbale uitspraken van de ouders over de veiligheid versus het gevaar van een sociale situatie op het sociaal vermijdend gedrag van kinderen. Hierbij is een experiment gedaan waarbij kinderen tussen 10 en 13 jaar een presentatie- en interactietaak moesten uitvoeren na bedreigende versus veilige informatie te horen van hun ouders over iemand die hen ging beoordelen. Ondertussen is er ook gekeken naar aanwezigheid van het temperament gedragsinhibitie. Aangezien dit temperament zich kenmerkt in sociaal vermijdend gedrag is er vanuit gegaan dat dit aanwezigheid hiervan invloed heeft op de mate vertoond sociaal vermijdend gedrag. Er is een niet significant effect gevonden tussen de verbale uitspraken over de veiligheid versus het gevaar van de ouders en het sociaal vermijdend gedrag van de kinderen. Er is wel een significant effect gevonden tussen het sociaal vermijdend gedrag en het temperament gedragsinhibitie. Kinderen toonden niet meer sociaal vermijdend gedrag vertoond na bedreigende of veilige informatie te hebben gehoord over de onbekenden van hun ouders. Wel is er meer sociaal vermijdend gedrag aangetoond bij kinderen die een hogere score hadden op een vragenlijst die het temperament gedragsinhibitie aantoonde. Er moet nog meer onderzoek gedaan worden over hoe sociaal vermijdend gedrag wordt aangeleerd. Although social anxiety disorders are a widespread problem among the population, not much is known about how social anxiety develops. Although several risk factors have been implicated in the development of social anxiety, previous research has shown that the social environment has a major influence. Children mainly learn social anxiety through verbal statements from the immediate environment, in which the parents appear to have a major influence. This study looked at the effect of verbal statements by the parents about the safety versus the danger of a social situation on the social avoidance behavior of children. An experiment was conducted in which children between the ages of 10 and 13 had to perform a presentation and interaction task after hearing threatening versus safe information from their parents about someone who was going to assess them. In the meantime, the presence of the temperament behavioral inhibition has also been examined. Since this temperament is characterized in social avoidance behavior, it has been assumed that the presence influences the degree of social avoidance behavior. An insignificant effect was found between the verbal statements about safety versus danger of the parents and the social avoidance behavior of the children. A significant effect was found between social avoidance behavior and temperament behavioral inhibition. Children did not showed more social avoidance behavior after hearing threatening or safe information about the strangers. However, more social avoidance behavior has been shown in children who had a higher score on a questionnaire that showed behavioral inhibition. More research needs to be done on how social avoidance behavior is learned.Show less
Sociale angst komt bij één op de drie mensen voor en is een predictor van het vormen van een sociale angststoornis. Behandelingen met betrekking tot een sociale angststoornis zijn weinig effectief...Show moreSociale angst komt bij één op de drie mensen voor en is een predictor van het vormen van een sociale angststoornis. Behandelingen met betrekking tot een sociale angststoornis zijn weinig effectief en vragen om onderzoek naar middelen om sociale angst tijdig voor te zijn. In het huidige onderzoek werd de invloed van positieve en negatieve verbale informatie, gegeven door een ouder, op sociale angst bij kinderen onderzocht in een sociale situatie met een vreemde persoon. De mate waarin de ouder sociaal angstig was, werd hierbij als mediërende rol in het onderzoek meegenomen. In het onderzoek ontving een groep kinderen (N=69), van een leeftijd (10-13 jaar) waarin sociale angst in vele gevallen zijn oorsprong heeft, positieve of negatieve informatie over twee onbekende juryleden. Zij voltooiden daarna drie sociale taken in het bijzijn van dit jurylid, waarna hun angstovertuigingen met een fear beliefs vragenlijst werden gemeten. Uit de resultaten blijkt dat kinderen meer angst rapporteerden op de fear beliefs vragenlijst wanneer zij negatieve verbale informatie over het jurylid hadden ontvangen van hun ouder, dan wanneer zij positieve informatie ontvingen. Sociale angst bij ouders bleek niet van significante betekenis te zijn op de angstovertuigingen van kinderen in ons onderzoek. We kunnen concluderen dat ouders, door middel van het geven van verbale informatie, een grote rol spelen in het ontstaan van sociale angst bij kinderen. De implicaties van het onderzoek en de limitaties die aan het experiment verbonden zijn, worden bediscussieerd.Show less
Previous research has shown that parental verbal expressions of positive and negative information contribute to the development of fear responses in their child using a variety of indices, but...Show morePrevious research has shown that parental verbal expressions of positive and negative information contribute to the development of fear responses in their child using a variety of indices, but research on the effect of parental verbal expressions on physiological indices of fear is limited. The current study aims to investigate whether threat or safety information presented by parents about a stranger affects the heart rate of the children when interacting with those strangers. Additionally, in the light of earlier evidence that has shown a moderating effect on the influence of verbal threat information on physiological changes, the role of child trait social anxiety has been explored as a possible moderator. A sample of 38 10-to-14-year-old children and their primary caregivers have participated in the current study. Parents gave their child verbal threat or safety information about two strangers that the child had to interact with during social tasks: social performance, watching back their performance, and social interaction. Heart rate was continuously recorded during these social tasks. Child trait social anxiety was measured through the child's report on the social anxiety subscale of the SCARED questionnaire. Results showed that parental verbal expressions of threat versus safety did not have a significant effect on the heart rate of the child. Furthermore, no significant moderation of this effect by child trait social anxiety was found. Conclusively, the results of the current experimental design are not in line with the expected outcome and, therefore, possible explanations and the need for further research have been highlighted.Show less
The literature suggests a possible link between self-esteem and the affective component of eye contact. We drew on these findings to examine whether this link is also present with a subcomponent of...Show moreThe literature suggests a possible link between self-esteem and the affective component of eye contact. We drew on these findings to examine whether this link is also present with a subcomponent of self-esteem, namely parental self-efficacy. Parental self-efficacy has a mutual influence on parental care, and, along with eye contact, they are critical to the formation of a healthy parent-child relationship, which in turn fosters favorable child development outcomes. However, not much is known about how parental self-efficacy and parental care impact (the experience of) eye contact between a parent and their child. The present study (n = 62) investigated the association between parental care as perceived by the child, parental selfefficacy, and the affective response of parents to eye contact with their own child. Parents engaged in an fMRI task where they were shown pre-recorded movies of target people gazing directly at them. Targets were either the participant’s own child or an unfamiliar child. The objective was to explore whether parental self-efficacy impacts how parents feel after direct eye contact with their child and if parental care influenced this relationship. Our findings did not support these expectations. The study provides further grounds for the link between parental selfefficacy and parental care. Additional implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.Show less
Social anxiety disorder has an early onset (median age at thirteen years) and runs in families. An important pathway for acquiring fear is via verbal expression. Therefore, the aim of this study...Show moreSocial anxiety disorder has an early onset (median age at thirteen years) and runs in families. An important pathway for acquiring fear is via verbal expression. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of parental verbal information of threat/anxiety on the fear beliefs of their children and tried to determine whether the parental social anxiety levels moderated the effect of the parental verbal expression on the fear beliefs of children. A community sample of children (N = 68) between 11 and 13 years visited the lab with one of their parents. The parents were instructed to verbally give threat/anxiety information about one stranger (judge) and safety information about the other stranger to their children. After the manipulation, the children were asked to do a social performance for each stranger which was a presentation about confidence and shyness. After the performance the children were asked about their fear beliefs. A significant effect was found of the parental verbal expressions of threat/anxiety (vs. safety) on the fear beliefs of the children. The fear beliefs of children were higher about the stranger when threat/anxiety information was given than when safety information was given. This effect was independent from the parental social anxiety levels. This study provides insight to the effect of parental verbal information on the fear beliefs of their children. It can be implicated that parents have an important role in verbally conveying fear to children.Show less
Transmission of parental verbal negative (versus positive) information regarding social situations might cause fear acquisition of social encounters noticeable in children’s avoidance of strangers....Show moreTransmission of parental verbal negative (versus positive) information regarding social situations might cause fear acquisition of social encounters noticeable in children’s avoidance of strangers. The present study investigated the influence of parental verbal negative (versus positive) information about strangers on a child’s avoidance of strangers in late childhood/adolescence years (10-13 years old). In addition, the moderating role of parental trait social anxiety on children’s behavior towards a stranger was explored. Parents were presented with standardized negative or positive information about two strangers, which they transferred to their child (N=72, M= 11.56 years; 39 girls). Following the manipulation, children performed three social tasks twice (social performance, watching performance back, and social interaction), with each of the strangers. In addition, parents reported their own social anxiety symptoms in a questionnaire. Findings revealed that parental verbal negative (versus positive) information did not make children more avoidant towards the stranger. Parental social anxiety did not moderate the effect of verbal information on child stranger avoidance, and parental social anxiety levels did not predict children’s overall avoidant behavior to the strangers. In conclusion, the findings reveal no effect of parental verbal expressions on a child’s avoidance to strangers and highlight the importance of further research on this topic, to acquire more knowledge on the environmental influences in the development of SAD.Show less
Background: Parents’ verbal transmission of information is shown to have an influence on children’s anxiety, which could be moderated by an attentional bias. This study investigated the link...Show moreBackground: Parents’ verbal transmission of information is shown to have an influence on children’s anxiety, which could be moderated by an attentional bias. This study investigated the link between parents’ verbal information transmission about a stranger and the children’s self-focused attention in the context of social anxiety and explored possible moderation of this effect by the children’s fear of being negatively evaluated. Methods: 75 9-to-14-year-old children visited a lab to perform a task, i.e. speaking in front of two strangers sequentially and a live screen on which they were projected. The parents’ verbal manipulation made one of the strangers seem safe and one of the strangers a threat to their evaluation and the looks to the live screen were measured between conditions. The children also filled out questionnaires on the Fear of Negative Child evaluation Results: Our analyses showed no significant result for the effect of parents’ verbal transmission of information on the children’s self-focused attention. Our analyses also showed no significant result for the fear of being negatively evaluated as a moderating factor. Conclusion: No significant effects were found for either the effect of parents’ verbal information on the children’s self-focused attention nor the moderating effects of the fear of being negatively evaluated. We hypothesize that this could be because parents’ verbal information may not be enough to create anxiety in the children or that our sample consisted of more confident children than average, because of a selection bias.Show less
Studying the relationship between empathy and anxiety is important, since previous research shows that different kinds of empathy, cognitive and affective, could predict anxiety in adolescents....Show moreStudying the relationship between empathy and anxiety is important, since previous research shows that different kinds of empathy, cognitive and affective, could predict anxiety in adolescents. Cognitive emotion regulation (CER) could be of importance in this relationship, since it is related to both constructs. This is why this study investigates the relationships between empathy, anxiety and CER in adolescents. A group of 99 adolescents aged 9-19 filled in several questionnaires. The Empathy Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index to measure affective- and cognitive empathy, the StateTrait Anxiety Inventory to measure anxiety and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire to measure CER. The results showed: 1) Affective empathy was found to be a predictor for anxiety, 2) Cognitive empathy was found to not be a predictor for anxiety, 3) CER was found to not moderate the found relationship between affective empathy and anxiety. In conclusion, the found results regarding the influence of affective empathy on anxiety will prove useful in anxiety treatment. There is more understanding about how affective empathy could influence anxiety treatment, and therefore it can be taken into account when treating anxious individuals. Further research is required on the possible influence of cognitive empathy and CER. This might improve treating anxiety even further.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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Background: Theoretical models propose that parenting practices play a role in the development and maintenance of child depression. However, previous meta-analytic findings indicated that parenting...Show moreBackground: Theoretical models propose that parenting practices play a role in the development and maintenance of child depression. However, previous meta-analytic findings indicated that parenting accounted for only 5-11% of the variance in childhood depression, with varying effects for different types of parenting behaviors. Research Question: The current study aimed to investigate the association between observed negative/positive parenting behavior, childhood depression, and child gender, while controlling for the confounding effects of type of informant and assessment approach for childhood depression. Method: Two meta-analysis were conducted for the negative parenting – childhood depression and positive parenting – childhood depression association, while including moderating and confounding variables. The current study included thirty articles in total, with nineteen examining negative parenting behaviors and twenty-three examining positive parenting behaviors. Results: Observed negative parenting behavior was positively and observed positive parenting behavior was negatively related to childhood depression, with overall small effect sizes. Type of parenting behavior, child gender, and assessment approach for childhood depression did not moderate the associations. Type of informant for childhood depression explained some variance in the positive parenting – childhood depression association. Conclusions: Parenting interventions for childhood depression might aim to improve a broader range of parental behaviors. Future research is advised to compare actual to perceived parenting behaviors and investigate the direction of the parenting – childhood depression association, while adopting a multiple levels of analysis perspective. This could possibly contribute towards developing most effective personalized interventions for childhood depression, while lowering the high burden of depression.Show less
SAD is a highly prevalent disorder and significantly interferes with daily functioning. SAD is more prevalent in children from parents who are socially anxious themselves, and parents are...Show moreSAD is a highly prevalent disorder and significantly interferes with daily functioning. SAD is more prevalent in children from parents who are socially anxious themselves, and parents are considered to play an important role in the transmission of social anxiety. This study aimed to investigate the role of parents’ verbal threat messages on children’s observed fear and avoidance in a social situation with strangers, and explored a potential moderation of this effect by parental social trait anxiety levels. A sample of 68 children participated with their parents. Both parents filled out a social anxiety questionnaire and then the primary caregiver came to the lab with the child. Parents provided their children with a threat message and a safety message, each linked to a stranger. Then children’s fear and avoidance was observed during an interaction with each stranger. Results showed that there was no significant effect of parents’ verbal threat messages on children’s observed fear and avoidance behavior, compared to the safety messages. Moreover, parental social trait anxiety did not moderate this effect. Although these results indicate no effect of parents’ verbal messages on children’s social anxiety, it is more likely that children did not display socially anxious behavior due to prior exposure to the stranger and the presence of their parents in the room. Further research on this topic should shed light on these issues and help give more insight into the verbal pathway of social anxiety transmission from parents to children.Show less
Background Parental verbal transmission of fear is an important pathway of fear acquisition through which social anxiety may be transmitted from parents to children. Studies show that verbal...Show moreBackground Parental verbal transmission of fear is an important pathway of fear acquisition through which social anxiety may be transmitted from parents to children. Studies show that verbal expressions of threat elicit more fear in children compared to safety information. This is mainly tested in situations involving a novel animal. The current study investigated the effect of parental verbal threat versus safety information on children’s reported and observed fear in response to a stranger. Methods Children (N=71) between 10 to 13 years old participated to this experiment with their primary caregiver. Parents were instructed to provide verbal threat and safety information about two strangers. The children had to give a presentation to those strangers, watch back the presentation together and have a social interaction. Reported fear to each of the strangers was measured with a questionnaire and observed fear was measured by observing child’s behaviour throughout the tasks. Results Children report more fear for the stranger who was paired with threat information compared the stranger paired with safe information. Observed fear behaviour did not differ significantly between the threat and safe condition. Consequently, observed fear could not be predicted by reported fear. Conclusion Parental verbal expressions of social anxiety had a different effect on reported fear and observed fear. As a response to verbal threat comments provided by parents, children reported higher levels of fear compared to verbal safe information. Whereas those comments made no difference in children’s observed avoidance behavior.Show less
