Pathways from maternal shyness to adolescent social anxiety

Abstract

Background: Social anxiety is amongst the most prevalent adolescent mental health problems; however, it is often unrecognized due to its comorbidity with other anxiety problems such as generalized anxiety. Thus, understanding the unique developmental pathways to social anxiety is critical for improving its prevention. We examined the pathway from maternal shyness, when children were 4 years old, to adolescents' social anxiety at age 15 through social wariness at age 7. We hypothesized that childhood social wariness would mediate the association between maternal shyness and social anxiety in adolescence. Methods: Participants (N = 291; 54% female) were followed from early childhood to adolescence. Mothers reported on their own shyness when children were 4 years old. Social wariness toward unfamiliar peers was observed in the laboratory at ages 4 and 7. Adolescent social anxiety and generalized anxiety were assessed via self-report, parent-report, and clinical diagnoses at age 15. Results: Maternal shyness was positively associated with adolescent social anxiety but not generalized anxiety at age 15. Higher levels of maternal shyness at age 4 predicted greater social wariness at age 7, which in turn predicted greater social anxiety but not generalized anxiety at age 15. Social wariness at age 7 partially mediated the association between maternal shyness and adolescent social anxiety. Conclusions: This study identifies a unique developmental pathway from maternal shyness to adolescent social anxiety. Findings suggest that childhood social wariness connects maternal shyness to adolescent social anxiety.

Social versus non‐social behavioral inhibition: Differential prediction from early childhood of long‐term psychosocial outcomes

“…Similarly, Zeytinoglu et al. (2022) found that social wariness to unfamiliar peers at 7 years specifically predicted social anxiety but not generalized anxiety at 15 years. Together, these findings suggest that there is a unique link between inhibited behaviors in social contexts and subsequent social anxiety.…”

Annual Research Review: Developmental pathways linking early behavioral inhibition to later anxiety

“…One likely pathway by which parental anxiety may contribute to child BI/anxiety is through heredity, given previous work showing modest‐to‐high levels of heritability in the traits of BI and social anxiety (Eley et al., 2015; Smith et al., 2012). However, parents with anxiety may also contribute to the development of children's BI or anxiety by shaping their prenatal (Buss et al., 2012) and/or socialization experiences (Rickman & Davidson, 1994; Zeytinoglu et al., 2022).…”

Which Anxious Adolescents Were Most Affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic?

“…Some researchers have suggested that because different types of anxiety are highly comorbid, their differences are not clinically meaningful (Rutter, 2011). On the other hand, other researchers have highlighted the importance of the differences between types of anxiety (Pine, 2007(Pine, , 2011 because they show differences in emotion processing and responding (Blair et al, 2008;Kessel et al, 2015;Mennin et al, 2009;Salum et al, 2013)-which might ultimately lead to differential outcomes (e.g., Zeytinoglu, Neuman, et al, 2021). In this way, by using the pandemic and its associated restrictions as a natural experiment, we were able to examine whether different types of anxiety predicted different outcomes, informing theoretical discussions of anxiety-disorder research.…”