Social fears are common in teenagers. Most are transient in nature, but some remain and convey a risk for the development of social anxiety disorder (SAD). A potential underlying mechanism is the...Show moreSocial fears are common in teenagers. Most are transient in nature, but some remain and convey a risk for the development of social anxiety disorder (SAD). A potential underlying mechanism is the parent-to-child transmission of social fears through social learning via the verbal information pathway. Previous research also suggests a role for behavioral inhibition (BI) in acquiring social fears. The current study investigated the effect of parental verbal threat vs. safety information on children’s social fear beliefs towards strangers and whether this effect is moderated by BI and gender. In this experimental study, a non-clinical sample of 64 children aged 9.5-14 years (M = 11.64, SD = 1.15; 35 girls) participated in a social performance task with a stranger about whom their parents communicated threatening or safety information. Children filled in self-reports regarding social fear beliefs about two strangers and BI. The results revealed stronger fear beliefs towards strangers about whom parents communicated threatening information. BI or gender did not moderate this effect. The current study provides additional support for the assumed importance of parental behavior in acquiring social fears through social learning, and in particular with regard to the pathway of verbal information transmission. To interpret the effect as a result of verbal threat information, future research might consider a baseline measure of social fear beliefs to compare changes in social fear beliefs as a result of parental verbal information. This study contributed to a better understanding of underlying mechanisms that place children at risk of developing social fears.Show less
Theories on parent-to-child transmission of social fears highlight the role of verbal information. Specifically, children displaying behavioral inhibition (BI) appear to be particularly responsive...Show moreTheories on parent-to-child transmission of social fears highlight the role of verbal information. Specifically, children displaying behavioral inhibition (BI) appear to be particularly responsive to verbally expressed fear by parents. This study tested the effect of parental expressions of verbal threat (versus safety) on the children’s physiological fear responses to a social stressor, while exploring the moderation effect of BI. Primary caregivers provided standardized verbal threat or safety information to their child (N = 65) regarding two strangers in the lab. Following this manipulation, children performed three social tasks in front of each stranger while their heart rate was measured. Parents reported on their child’s BI. Findings revealed no significant difference in the children's physiological responses to the stranger paired with the threat versus safety information. Moreover, the level of BI in children did not significantly influence the impact of verbal information on heart rate. The findings suggest that exposure to threat information does not per se elicit higher heart rates in children, and question the idea that higher levels of BI necessarily exacerbate the effect of parental verbal threat on physiological fear. The results are interpreted in light of the study’s limitations and emphasize valuable directions for future research on the development of social fears, particularly those fears manifesting in physiological markers.Show less
This study investigated the transmission of social anxiety from parent to child via verbal information about strangers. Based on previous research findings demonstrating verbal fear learning from...Show moreThis study investigated the transmission of social anxiety from parent to child via verbal information about strangers. Based on previous research findings demonstrating verbal fear learning from parent to child, which often resulted in avoidance behavior in the children, this study tested verbal fear learning in a social performance task with a stranger. Further, it was investigated whether parental social anxiety would moderate child´s avoidance towards the stranger. The current study included a community sample of 71 adolescents aged eleven- to fourteen. The children were accompanied by their primary caregiver to the lab, where the caregiver gave the manipulation by providing either safety or threat messages about two strangers. Multiple questionnaires were filled in by the parents and child, along with several measurements taken during the study, of which this thesis focused on the child´s avoidance behavior during the social performance task. Results indicate no significant differences in avoidance behavior between the safety or threat messages and no moderation effect of parental SAD. It was demonstrated that children of socially anxious parents were overall significantly more avoidant towards the strangers. Even though no support for a parent-to-child transmission of stranger anxiety in this sample was found, the findings contribute to the growing evidence that parental SAD does translate into behavioral avoidance in their children. Future research should try to find reliable measures of avoidance behavior, research a clinical sample and investigate this intergenerational transmission in a longitudinal or observational design.Show less
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most common types of psychopathology. Parent-child interactions play a prominent role in the development of SAD. Verbal information from parent to child...Show moreSocial anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most common types of psychopathology. Parent-child interactions play a prominent role in the development of SAD. Verbal information from parent to child has been shown to be a potential mechanism for the transfer of fear. The current study aimed to investigate this transfer from parent to child by exploring the effect of parental verbal communication of threat and safety information on children’s attentional bias. Additionally, it was investigated whether the overall anxiety levels of parents would moderate this effect. The sample included 68 children aged 10 to 14 (38 girls and 29 boys, Mage = 11.23, SD = 1.17, range 9.57 - 14.28) and their parents (68 mothers and 55 fathers). The attentional bias was operationalized by using recorded videos of the social tasks performed by the children to calculate the total duration and frequency of the child's gaze at a safety-paired stranger and a threat-paired stranger. The results revealed no significant effect of parental verbal communication of threat versus safety on children’s attentional bias. Moreover, parental anxiety scores did not moderate this effect. The findings suggest that threat and safety information received verbally from parents does not influence the child's fear response. Our findings are not in line with previous studies, highlighting the importance of future research that will further clarify the mechanisms playing a role in the verbal transmission of threat and anxiety from parent to child.Show less
Social anxiety runs in families. A pathway that plays a significant role in the transmission of social anxiety from parent-to-child, is the verbal information pathway. Studies that investigated...Show moreSocial anxiety runs in families. A pathway that plays a significant role in the transmission of social anxiety from parent-to-child, is the verbal information pathway. Studies that investigated this pathway mainly focused on the fear of novel animals instead of social fears. The current study investigated how parental verbal threat versus safety information affects the fear beliefs of children about strangers in social situations. Additionally, in the light of earlier research suggesting an influence of parental social anxiety on the effect of verbal information, parental social anxiety has been explored as a moderator. Primary caregivers provided their child (N = 69, M = 11.67 years, 59.4% girls) with either verbal threat or safety information regarding two strangers. After receiving the verbal information, the child had to perform three social tasks, twice, in front of each stranger. After the social tasks, the child had to report his level of fear (fear beliefs) regarding the strangers. Parents reported their own levels of social anxiety through a questionnaire. The findings showed that children reported more fear for the stranger paired with parental verbal threat information compared to the stranger paired with parental verbal safety information. However, no moderation of parental social anxiety on the effect of verbal information was found. Conclusively, the study reveals a causal effect of parental verbal threat on children’s fear beliefs. Possible explanations for the lack of a moderating effect of parental social anxiety and the need for future research are discussed.Show less
Verbal parental transmission of threat information about strangers may influence fear beliefs and avoidance responses in children. Earlier studies showed that sharing threat information with...Show moreVerbal parental transmission of threat information about strangers may influence fear beliefs and avoidance responses in children. Earlier studies showed that sharing threat information with children caused higher levels in fear beliefs and higher avoidance responses compared to when safe information was shared. There is proof that fearful temperament/behavioral inhibition (BI), moderate the relation between children receiving threat information and scoring higher on fear beliefs and avoidance responses. In this study, parents provided threat and safe information about two strangers to their children (N = 72, Mage = 11.67). Following the manipulation, children went through three social tasks twice with each of the strangers and reported fear beliefs in a questionnaire for each stranger. Avoidance behavior was observed in the social tasks. Fearful temperament was used as an individual difference predictor and was measured by the Early Adult Temperament Questionnaire. Verbal transmission of threat information was linked to higher fear belief scores compared to safe information. Verbal transmission of threat information was not linked to higher avoidance behavior responses. The fear beliefs outcomes and the behavioral responses were not affected by fearful temperament. This study only found proof that verbal parental transmission of threat information about strangers increased children’s’ fear beliefs and may increase the risks of developing SAD. This study has his strengths and limitations regarding the procedure and chosen measurements, but hopefully gives new inspiration to new or follow-up research about verbal parental transmission of threat information about strangers and the effects on children.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
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
