Adolescent Social Anxiety as an Outcome of Inhibited Temperament in Childhood

Temperament, Family Environment and Anxiety in Preschool Children

“…These results are consistent with previous research demonstrating that BI is associated with increased anxiety in children (Chronis-Tuscano et al, 2009;Schwartz et al, 1999). Importantly, however, these results provide the first evidence that BI may be a related to a range of childhood anxiety disorders rather than just Social Anxiety Disorder, as has been suggested in previous research (Chronis-Tuscano et al, 2009;Muris et al, 2010).…”

Behavioural inhibition: A predictor of anxiety

“…They found that social rather than nonsocial fearfulness accounted for the relationship between BI and the symptomatic presentation of the anxiety disorders, further supporting the notion of the relationship between BI and social phobia. This link of BI to social phobia was further supported by Schwartz et al (9), who found that adolescents classified as meeting criteria for BI at two years of age (who tended to have a preservation of BI into early adolescence) were more likely to be suffering from social anxiety at age 13 years. That is, 61% of these subjects classified as BI at 21 months of age had current social anxiety, versus 27% of the uninhibited subjects.…”

“…The ability to stably retain the symptoms of BI was supported by Schwartz et al (9), who reported on the preservation of BI into adolescence.…”

Exploring the boundary between temperament and generalized anxiety disorder: A receiver operating characteristic analysis

“…Kagan (1994) and coworkers have proposed the temperamental dimension of behavior inhibition (BI) to describe children who become overly fearful and reticent when confronted with novel situations and people. BI as a toddler has been found to predict later psychopathology, particularly anxiety disorders (Biederman et al, 1993;Schwartz et al, 1999). Other measures of related temperamental or personality traits, variably named neuroticism, negative affectivity, or negative emotionality have also been found to have strong associations with anxiety disorders (Anthony, Lonigan, Hooe, & Phillips, 2002;Caspi, 2000;Kuo, Chih, Soong, Yang, & Chen, 2004).…”

“…Hettema, Prescott, and Kendler (2004) recently found evidence that not only is there a high degree of correlation between neuroticism and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) but that the two conditions may involve some of the same genes. Others, however, view temperamental dimensions as one of many risk factors for later psychopathology (Schwartz, Snidman, & Kagan, 1999) and something qualitatively distinct between psychopathology itself.…”