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
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
