Pediatric anxiety disorders are among the most common disorders in children and adolescence resulting in both short-term and long-term negative consequences across a variety of domains including social and academic. Early fearful temperament has emerged as a strong predictor of anxiety development in childhood; however, not all fearful children become anxious. The current article summarizes theory and evidence for heterogeneity in the identification of temperamentally fearful children and trajectories of risk for anxiety. The findings presented in this article reveal that identification of subgroups of fearful temperament improves prediction of who is at risk for developing anxiety problems.

Identifying early risk factors for the development of social anxiety symptoms has important translational implications. Accurately identifying which children are at the highest risk is of critical importance, especially if we can identify risk early in development. We examined continued risk for social anxiety symptoms at the transition to adolescence in a community sample of children (n = 112) that had been observed for high fearfulness at age 2 and tracked for social anxiety symptoms from preschool through age 6. In our previous studies, we found that a pattern of dysregulated fear (DF), characterized by high fear in low threat contexts, predicted social anxiety symptoms at ages 3, 4, 5, and 6 years across two samples. In the current study, we re-evaluated these children at 11–13 years of age by using parent and child reports of social anxiety symptoms, parental monitoring, and peer relationship quality. The scores for DF uniquely predicted adolescents’ social anxiety symptoms beyond the prediction that was made by more proximal measures of behavioral (e.g., kindergarten social withdrawal) and concurrent environmental risk factors (e.g., parental monitoring, peer relationships). Implications for early detection, prevention, and intervention are discussed.

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Preschool parent interventions may produce downstream benefits if initial intervention gains are sustained and improve later socialization experiences. This study explored associations between initial effects of the REDI (Research-based Developmentally Informed) Parent program and later benefits. A randomized trial involving 200 Head Start children (55% European-American, 26% African American, 19% Latino, 56% male, M age = 4.45 years) produced kindergarten gains in parenting and child skills. Four years later, sustained effects were evident in areas of academic performance and social-emotional competence at school and new benefits emerged at home. Initial gains in child academic and social-emotional domains mediated sustained gains within the same domains. In addition, initial gains in parent-child conversations, parent academic expectations, and child social-emotional skills mediated later reductions in parenting stress and child problems at home. Parent-focused preschool interventions may not only promote sustained improvements in child school adjustment but may also foster better family functioning over time. Children growing up in poverty often start school with less well-developed social-emotional and language skills than their more advantaged peers (Ryan, Fauth, & Brooks-Gunn, 2006). Limited financial and educational resources create multiple hardships for families, often exposing parents and children to high levels of chronic stress, compromising effective parenting, and reducing home learning support (Brooks-Gunn & Markman, 2005). These adversities impede the development of the prefrontal cortex during the early childhood years and diminish child progress in acquiring the language and self-regulatory skills that provide a critical foundation for controlling attention, managing emotions, inhibiting impulses, and approaching problems with flexibility and persistence (Blair & Raver, 2015). The result is a socioeconomic gap in key competencies that support school success, evident across the dual domains of language/emergent literacy skills and social-emotional/self-regulatory functioning (Blair & Raver, 2015). This gap does not diminish in later years but predicts to persistent socioeconomic disparities in effective social adjustment, learning engagement, and academic performance (Ryan et al., 2006).

Research Findings Exuberant temperament, characterized by high approach and positive affect, is linked to socioemotional outcomes including risk for externalizing symptoms across development. Externalizing problems interfere with children’s school readiness and lead to disruptive behavior in the classroom. While some moderating factors help identify which exuberant children are at risk and in which contexts they are at risk, few studies have identified early moderators that protect against maladjustment when children enter school. In the current study, we examined exuberant temperament in 124 toddlers and classroom behavior problems reported by kindergarten teachers. We also assessed the impact of maternal responsiveness at 24 months on the relation between exuberance and classroom behavior problems. As hypothesized, we found that higher exuberance predicted more behavior problems. Additionally, maternal responsiveness moderated this association such that high responsiveness protected exuberant children from classroom behavior problems. Practice or Policy These results expand our understanding of socioemotional risks for exuberant children and how these risks influence school readiness. We also find that maternal responsiveness during toddlerhood mitigates these risks, and our findings suggest that interventions for exuberant children at risk for behavior problems or poor school readiness should target parental responsiveness when children are toddlers.