Background: Social anxiety loads in families. In the present study, we focus on verbal threat and safety information from parents to their children as a potential pathway in the parent-tochild...Show moreBackground: Social anxiety loads in families. In the present study, we focus on verbal threat and safety information from parents to their children as a potential pathway in the parent-tochild transmission of anxiety. We used avoidance behavior towards strangers to measure the child's reaction to the verbal transmission of anxiety. We aimed to explore whether children with higher levels of fearful temperament show more avoidance behavior towards the strangers after receiving verbal threat information. Methods: Children between 4 and 6 years old (N= 68) participated in the study. The children were accompanied by their primary caregiver (63 mothers). The manipulation consisted of the primary caregiver priming the children with threat/safety information about the two strangers. Avoidance behavior was observed during the interaction task, which consisted of a short conversation with two strangers after manipulation. Results: The findings reveal that verbal threat information regarding strangers provided by their caregivers did not significantly increase avoidance behavior in children and there was no support for the idea that children with a more fearful temperament show more avoidance behavior towards strangers paired with threat information. Conclusion: The current study expands the current knowledge of the effect of verbal threat information from parent to child by showing that parental verbal threat or safety information did not alter their children’s avoidance of strangers. Furthermore, the current study contributes to previous research by showing that the influence of verbal information about strangers from parents to their children are not irrespective of behavioral inhibition levels.Show less
Internalising problems in adolescents with a parental chronic medical condition have been associated with many predictive factors. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of parent...Show moreInternalising problems in adolescents with a parental chronic medical condition have been associated with many predictive factors. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of parent attachment on internalising problems and specifically anxious/depressed behaviour, and to identify the potential influence of gender on this association. The data used were from a Dutch study from Sieh et al., (2012) which was conducted on 149 adolescents aged between 10 and 20 years (m = 15.1 years, 59.7% female), all with at least one parent with a chronic medical condition. Adolescent outcomes were measured using the Screening Instrument for Adolescents of Parents with Chronic Medical Condition (SIAPCMC), which was administered at two time points, a year apart. Parent attachment was measured with alienation from mother and alienation from father on the IPPA, and internalising problems were assessed with internalising problems and anxious/depressed behaviours on the Youth Self Report. A regression analysis showed alienation from the mother and alienation from the father both significantly predicted internalising problem scores, and alienation from the mother significantly predicted anxious/depressed behaviours, thus concluding quality of parent attachment significantly effects internalising problems. Girls were found to be more likely to develop internalising problems and anxious/depressed behaviours as a result of lower quality of parent attachment than the boys. The results support the suggestion of a targeted intervention to increase attachment security through increasing the perceived availability of the parent, and consequently reduce the likelihood of the development of internalising problems.Show less
Previous research showed that verbal threat information was associated with fear beliefs in children. The current study aimed to complement this research by investigating the acquisition of fear...Show morePrevious research showed that verbal threat information was associated with fear beliefs in children. The current study aimed to complement this research by investigating the acquisition of fear beliefs through the pathway of verbal parental threat information, whilst considering temperament. This multi-method experimental study investigated fear beliefs in 67 children (four to six years old) in a social learning paradigm. Children were exposed to verbal threat- or safe information from their parent about two strangers/judges. The fear beliefs were assessed for each of the strangers using an adaptation of a fear beliefs questionnaire. Additionally, Behavioral Inhibition (BI) was investigated to measure the child’s temperament. Parents reported their child’s BI in questionnaires. The findings revealed that threat information from the parents resulted in more child fear beliefs than safety information. BI did not predict variations in the effect of verbal threat information on children’s fear beliefs. The results showed that the verbal threat information pathway contributed to the acquisition of fear beliefs, but this effect was not moderated by temperament. The current study contributes to the previous literature on verbal parental information, by showing that parents’ verbal threat information contributed to the intergenerational transmission of fear beliefs.Show less
Mechanisms underlying prosocial behavior, behavior or actions carried out with the intention to benefit another individual, are unclear. Previous studies have found a positive relationship between...Show moreMechanisms underlying prosocial behavior, behavior or actions carried out with the intention to benefit another individual, are unclear. Previous studies have found a positive relationship between empathy and prosocial learning. The current study, inspired by the study of Lockwood and colleagues (2016), consists of two experiments where the link between prosocial learning, learning to obtain rewards for others, and empathy is investigated through a probabilistic learning task based on reinforcement learning principles. Participants had to choose between two different symbols and learn which of these had the highest probability of earning points in three different conditions: for themselves (selfish), for another person (other) or for no one (none). The first experiment measured the conditions with two probabilities (60/40, 70/30), whereas in the second experiment one probability was used (75/25). The aim of the current study was to replicate the findings of Lockwood and colleagues (2016) who found a positive relationship between empathy and prosocial learning with the same probabilities as our second experiment. The results from both experiments revealed no significant relationship between empathy and prosocial learning. The second experiment showed that participants learned better in the selfish condition compared to the prosocial and none condition. It can be concluded that in the current study no link was found between empathy and prosocial learning, which might be explained from the differences in research design between the study of Lockwood and colleagues (2016) and the current study. There seemed to be a self-bias in learning, i.e., people learn better for themselves than for others.Show less
Background: Questionnaires for anxiety disorders come in different lengths, scales and with varying interpretation guidelines. This may hamper therapist-patient communication when discussing the...Show moreBackground: Questionnaires for anxiety disorders come in different lengths, scales and with varying interpretation guidelines. This may hamper therapist-patient communication when discussing the score and the interpretation of where a patient can be placed on a severity scale. Expressing scores on a standardized common metric can facilitate the communication between therapist and patient. This thesis aims for a method that enables an easier interpretation of scores and in addition produces scores with a normal distribution. Method: Using the data of four anxiety questionnaires, namely the Brief Scale for Anxiety (BSA), the PADUA Inventory Revised (PI-R), the Panic Appraisal Inventory (POL/PAI) and the Impact of Events Scale Revised (IES-R), theta-based T-scores were calculated with the Item-Response Theory and deployed as a basis for crosswalk tables to look up T-scores from raw scores. Based on these crosswalk tables, transformation formulas were established to calculate T-scores. To validate these, calculated T-scores were compared to theta-based T-scores. Results: Most of the calculated T-scores had a normal distribution and the correlations between both methods to arrive at the T-scores were significant, the highest correlation was found for the BSA and the IES-R. Discussion: Due to a significant correlation and a large sample size a new method to arrive at a common metric was established by linking every raw score on a T-score metric. This provides a way to facilitate the interpretation and discussion of outcome scores. Further, with this new method disorder severity can be calculated and looked up due to tangible cut-off scores.Show less
The aim of this study was to investigate if parental verbal threat vs. safe comments paired with strangers led to children having more fear beliefs and attention towards the stranger paired with...Show moreThe aim of this study was to investigate if parental verbal threat vs. safe comments paired with strangers led to children having more fear beliefs and attention towards the stranger paired with threat comments, while also looking if temperament (measured as behavioral inhibition (BI)) would have a moderating role. It was expected that children would have more fear beliefs and attention towards the stranger paired with parental verbal threat comments compared to the stranger paired safe comments and that BI would have a moderating role on the effect of parental verbal comments. The sample consisted of 4-6-year-olds. In the experiment a manipulation was used where one stranger was paired with threat comments and the other one with safe comments, both given by the parent. Then, the children encountered the strangers during a social and interaction task. The results show that children’s fear beliefs about the stranger paired with parental threat comments were significantly higher than about the stranger paired with parental safe comments. This was not the case for children’s attention towards the strangers. So, parental verbal threat comments paired with a stranger led to more fear beliefs but did not increase attention. Furthermore, the moderating role of temperament was not significant. To conclude, this study supports the growing evidence that children's fear beliefs can be changed by giving information but did not found this effect for attention. Also, the effect of verbal threat information on fear beliefs and attention did not differ as a function of child temperament.Show less
Background. Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is common, but little research is done on children with SAD. One origin of fear is verbal transmission, i.e. the receiving of threatening information. In...Show moreBackground. Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is common, but little research is done on children with SAD. One origin of fear is verbal transmission, i.e. the receiving of threatening information. In frightening situations, one’s heart rate (HR) increases. However, in some studies no heightened HR was found in people with SAD. This might mean that the link between stressor and HR is moderated. Behavioural inhibition (BI) was found to be such a moderator. In our study, we examine the following two research questions: What is the effect of exposure to verbal expressions of anxiety (versus safety) from parents on their children’s physiological reactions to strangers? Are the physiological responses more pronounced with temperamentally fearful children? Methods. Together with their main caregiver, 51 children between 4-6 years of age came to the lab after both of their parents had filled in the Behaviorual Inhibition Questionnaire (BIQ) for them. Children had a conversation with two strangers, one at a time. Before the conversation, parents told the children that one of the strangers was friendly, while the other one was mean. Throughout the experiment the children’s HR was measured. Results. Children’s HR neither was significantly higher during the threat condition, nor did BI cause a significantly increased HR. Conclusion and implications. The results do not suggest a significant effect of verbal transmission on HR. Also the child’s temperament did not significantly alter that effect. More research on young children needs to be done to develop early interventions for children at risk of SAD.Show less
Social anxiety disorder is a disabling disorder that runs in families. One way in which anxiety is transmitted from parents to children is through parental verbal information, which induces...Show moreSocial anxiety disorder is a disabling disorder that runs in families. One way in which anxiety is transmitted from parents to children is through parental verbal information, which induces attentional biases towards threat-associated animals over safety-associated animals. However, this effect has only been researched with unknown animals as the subject of information. Therefore the current study aimed to investigate the effect of parental verbal information on children’s attentional bias in a social situation, using human strangers as the subject of information. Additionally, the moderating role of child social anxiety was explored. For this study, children (aged 4-6, N=52) visited the lab with their primary caregiver. The caregivers then transferred messages to their children about two strangers: one paired with positive information, one with negative information. After the children completed a social performance task with the strangers posing as judges, the children completed a visual search task with pictures of the strangers to measure children’s attentional bias towards the strangers. Also, child social anxiety was measured by parental report on a questionnaire. A repeated measures ANOVA showed no significant effect of parental verbal information on child attentional bias. Child social anxiety also did not affect this relationship. The absence of a significant effect of verbal information on attentional bias can be explained by the non-aversive experience children had with the strangers. If this possible extinction effect is found in future studies as well, it may have implications for the extended use of exposure therapy in the treatment of child social anxiety.Show less
Background: Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is a form of anxiety distinguished by fear and avoidance of social situations. SAD can be transferred from parent to child. In addition to genetic...Show moreBackground: Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is a form of anxiety distinguished by fear and avoidance of social situations. SAD can be transferred from parent to child. In addition to genetic inheritance of anxious traits, this transmission of anxiety can occur environmentally when parents verbally communicate threat or anxiety in social situations towards the child. Methods: This study tested whether parents’ verbal threat (versus safety) expressions give rise to more anxious fear beliefs in the child and explored whether this relation is moderated by parents’ trait social anxiety. Sixty-five children (mean age = 4,74, SD = 0,78) participated in this study with their parents. Both parents were asked to fill out the short version of the Social Phobia Avoidance Inventory (SPAI-short). In a lab parents were privately instructed to transfer information regarding two judges to their child. This information consisted of one judge being nice (safe judge) and one being unkind (threat judge). Thereafter, children were asked to sing a song in front of these judges. Afterwards child fear beliefs for each of the judges was measured via the Fear Beliefs Questionnaire (FBQ). Results: Significantly higher (anxious) fear beliefs for the threat judge were found compared to the safe judge, no moderating effects were found for parental social anxiety. Conclusion: Exposure to verbal expression of anxiety from the parent is related to children’s fear beliefs, however parents’ trait social anxiety has no moderating effect on that relationship. Replication of this study is desired with a between-subject design and diverse sampling.Show less
The aim of the study was to examine the effects of maternal stress, oxytocin and cortisol in breast milk, and frequency of breastfeeding on infant temperamental traits (Fear Aversion, Negative...Show moreThe aim of the study was to examine the effects of maternal stress, oxytocin and cortisol in breast milk, and frequency of breastfeeding on infant temperamental traits (Fear Aversion, Negative Affectivity, Orienting/Regulation, Extraversion/Surgency). In the cross-sectional study, Polish mothers and their 4 months old infants (N-163) were tested in two different meetings. The mothers filled out EPDS, RLCQ, IBQ-R and a survey concerning their breastfeeding pattern. Furthermore, breast milk samples were collected to assess oxytocin, cortisol and energy levels in milk. The findings does not support the prediction that maternal stress influences infants’ temperamental traits. The results of the study indicated that oxytocin in mother’s milk was significantly associated with negative affectivity. However, no significant association was found between temperamental traits and cortisol. Moreover, nursing frequency was also significantly related to higher negative affectivity, however, the relationship is in the opposite direction of what is expected.Show less
The verbal pathway of anxiety is regarded as the main mechanism through which parents transmit fear to their children; however this pathway has not been explored in the context of stranger anxiety....Show moreThe verbal pathway of anxiety is regarded as the main mechanism through which parents transmit fear to their children; however this pathway has not been explored in the context of stranger anxiety. This experimental study investigated the influence of threat and safety messages regarding strangers in the parent-to-child transmission of fear and considered the moderating role of children’s temperamental anxiety dispositions of behavioral inhibition (BI). The children included in this study were 4 to 6 years old (n = 68). Parents were asked to deliver manipulated verbal information (threat versus safety) to their children in reference to strangers whom later evaluate their children’s social performance. Children’s fear beliefs were measured prior to the social performance task. BI scores were assessed via online questionnaires and the children’s fear belief scores were assessed by administering a Fear Beliefs Questionnaire (FBQ). The children significantly reported more fear beliefs regarding the strangers assigned to the threat condition compared to the strangers assigned to the safety condition. This effect was not moderated by child BI. No significant overall association was found between the parents’ reports of BI and the children’s fear beliefs. Our study contributes to the emerging literature on the parental verbal pathway as an important mechanism through which children acquire fear by addressing stranger anxiety as another form of fear that can be verbally acquired. Future research should investigate samples of children with high BI levels to see whether this group is more influenced by their parents’ comments than a typically developing sample.Show less
Anxiety disorder is one of the most common mental disorders in children and it runs in families. The most prevalent way to transmit anxiety from parent to child in daily life is through verbal...Show moreAnxiety disorder is one of the most common mental disorders in children and it runs in families. The most prevalent way to transmit anxiety from parent to child in daily life is through verbal communication of threat information. The way that verbal transmission of information affects the behavior of children, and the possible moderating effect of parental anxiety, has not received much attention in scientific papers. Using an experimental manipulation, this study investigated how parental threat and safety information about strangers affected the observed behavior (avoidance and anxiety) of children towards these strangers. Children (aged four to six) were exposed to threat and safety information by their fathers or mothers regarding two judges. Children then completed two social tasks with the judges, one performance and one interaction, during which their behavior was observed. Parental anxiety was measured using the SCARED-A questionnaire. Results showed no significant effect of verbal safety and threat information on the observed anxious and avoidant behavior of children. Results also showed that parents’ general anxiety levels did not moderate the effect of the verbal comments. Thus, can be concluded that verbal threat and safety information seems to have no effect on behavior in children towards strangers, nor can behavior be predicted from parental anxiety.Show less
With a lifetime prevalence of 13,0% in the USA, social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a highly prevalent disorder (Stein et al., 2017). In order to provide proper prevention more research is needed on...Show moreWith a lifetime prevalence of 13,0% in the USA, social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a highly prevalent disorder (Stein et al., 2017). In order to provide proper prevention more research is needed on the factors leading to social anxiety in children. Apart from the genetic’s component, environmental factors can contribute to the parent to child transmission of SAD (Wong & Rapee, 2016). One environmental factor is the verbal information provided by parents to their children. Lang and Levis (1970) proposed that verbal information acts on physiological factors such as heart rate (HR). Yet, little is known about how verbal information affects heart rate in children in a social situation. The current study investigated the effect of verbal information provided by parents on the heart rate of children in a social situation while taking into account the effect of behavioral inhibition as a moderator. The sample consisted of 51 typically developed children aged 4-6 years. In the current study parents provided their children with safety and threat information about strangers. Heart rate of the children was measured during an interaction task with the strangers linked to the threat and safe information. The results did show that the nature of the verbal information paired with the strangers did not differently influence child HR responses to these strangers during the social interaction tasks. Moreover, there was neither a moderation effect nor a main effect of the covariate behavioral inhibition. This shows that in the social situation the verbal information given by their parents was not strong enough to trigger a different hear rate response in childrenShow less
This study aimed to investigate the effect of parental verbal threat information as an environmental learning mechanism on the familial transmission of social anxiety by studying its effects on...Show moreThis study aimed to investigate the effect of parental verbal threat information as an environmental learning mechanism on the familial transmission of social anxiety by studying its effects on fear beliefs about strangers. Additionally, this study considered the moderating role of social anxiety levels of the parent who provided the information to the child on the effect of verbal threat information. The sample consisted of 68 American children ranging from age 4 to 6. These children were told they had to perform for, and interact with two different judges (strangers). The children were provided with threat or safety information about the judges by their parent. Fear beliefs regarding each judge were assessed after the manipulation using an adapted version of the Fear Beliefs Questionnaire. Results indicated that verbal threat information from parents resulted in significantly higher fear beliefs in children about these judges than when safety information was provided. Parental general social anxiety did not moderate this effect. This is the first study to show that parental verbal threat information is effective in triggering higher fear beliefs about strangers in 4 to 6-yearold children than safety information. Thereby this study provides insight into the parent to child transmission of social anxiety via verbal threat information.Show less
