Background: The development of social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a complex aetiological pathway. Recent studies revealed that the verbal informational pathway influences children’s anxiety beliefs...Show moreBackground: The development of social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a complex aetiological pathway. Recent studies revealed that the verbal informational pathway influences children’s anxiety beliefs and behaviours towards novel animals. This study incorporated this to a social context by investigating the effect of parental verbal expression of threat/anxiety (versus safety) on the avoidance behaviour towards strangers in children. In addition, this study investigated if the temperamental construct behavioural inhibition (BI) moderated this effect. Methods: A community sample of 71 children aged between 9-to-14 participated with their primary caregiver by visiting the lab. Both parents had to fill in online questionnaires about their personal anxiety levels and child’s anxiety and temperamental levels. Whilst the child filled in questionnaires about their anxiety and temperamental levels. During the lab visit the caregiver provided verbal threat/anxiety (versus safety) information to their child about two strangers that would watch their child perform social tasks. The effect of this verbal manipulation was tested by observing the child’s avoidance behaviour during these social tasks. Results: The child’s avoidance behaviour did not significantly differ during the social tasks between the stranger paired with the threat/anxiety versus safe condition. However, children who reported more BI sensitivity showed more avoidance behaviour independent of the verbal manipulation. Conclusions: The type of verbal information transmitted by parents did not influence the child’s avoidance behaviour towards strangers. In addition, this study confirmed the existing evidence that BI is a risk factor for developing SAD behaviour.Show less
Background: Parental verbal threat information is considered to play an important role in the development of childhood anxiety. Attentional biases induced by verbal threat information may increase...Show moreBackground: Parental verbal threat information is considered to play an important role in the development of childhood anxiety. Attentional biases induced by verbal threat information may increase the risk of developing social anxiety disorder. This study aims to investigate the effect of parental verbal threat information about strangers on children’s attention to these strangers. In addition, we explored the potential moderating role of child social anxiety. Method: The sample consisted of 75 9-to-14-year-old children (M= 11.51 years; 39 girls) and their primary caregivers from the community. The children filled in a questionnaire to measure their social anxiety levels. In the lab, the children had to give two speeches about shyness and confidence in front of two different strangers. Before the social performance, the caregiver verbally communicated threat or safety information about the two strangers. The duration of the looks measured the child’s attention to each stranger during the social performance. Results: The parental verbal information did not influence the child’s attention to the stranger during the social performance. No significant moderation of this effect by the child’s social anxiety was observed. Conclusions: Parental verbal threat information about strangers does not influence children’s attention to these strangers. In addition, child social anxiety does not affect the effect of parental verbal information on children’s attention to strangers.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
