Temperament, peer victimization, and nurturing parenting in child anxiety: a moderated mediation model

Youth Anxiety: The Moderating Effects of Accommodation and Emotional Warmth

Parental accommodation (i.e., modifying behavior to reduce child distress) is among the most empirically supported anxiety enhancing parenting practices; while emotional warmth (i.e., support and affection) has demonstrated a less clear link to anxiety. The current study aims to explore the interactive nature of emotional warmth within the context of accommodation. We hypothesized that accommodation would moderate the relationship between emotional warmth and anxiety. The sample included parents of youth (N = 526) ages 7-17. A simple moderation analysis was conducted. Accommodation significantly moderated the relationship [B = 0.03, C.I. (0.01, 0.05), p = 0.01]. Additional variance was accounted for by adding the interaction term to the model (R2 = 0.47, p < 0.001). At high levels of accommodation, emotional warmth significantly predicted child anxiety symptoms. This study affirms that emotional warmth is significantly related to anxiety in the context of high accommodation. Future work ought to build upon these findings to explore these relationships. Limitations of the study include sampling and parent-report data.

Childhood inhibition predicts adolescent social anxiety: Findings from a longitudinal twin study

An enduring issue in the study of mental health is identifying developmental processes that explain how childhood characteristics progress to maladaptive forms. We examine the role that behavioral inhibition (BI) has on social anxiety (SA) during adolescence in 868 families of twins assessed at ages 8, 13, and 15 years. Multimodal assessments of BI and SA were completed at each phase, with additional measures (e.g., parenting stress) for parents and twins. Analyses were conducted in several steps: first, we used a cross-lagged panel model to demonstrate bidirectional paths between BI and SA; second a biometric Cholesky decomposition showed that both genetic and environmental influences on childhood BI also affect adolescent SA; next, multilevel phenotypic models tested moderation effects between BI and SA. We tested seven potential moderators of the BI to SA prediction in individual models and included only those that emerged as significant in a final conditional model examining predictors of SA. Though several main effects emerged as significant, only parenting stress had a significant interaction with BI to predict SA, highlighting the importance of environmental moderators in models examining temperamental effects on later psychological symptoms. This comprehensive assessment continues to build the prototype for such developmental psychopathology models.

Fearful Temperament and the Risk for Child and Adolescent Anxiety: The Role of Attention Biases and Effortful Control

Fearful temperament represents one of the most robust predictors of child and adolescent anxiety; however, not all children with fearful temperament unvaryingly develop anxiety. Diverse processes resulting from the interplay between automatic processing (i.e., attention bias) and controlled processing (i.e., effortful control) drive the trajectories toward more adaptive or maladaptive directions. In this review, we examine the associations between fearful temperament, attention bias, and anxiety, as well as the moderating effect of effortful control. Based on the reviewed literature, we propose a two-mechanism developmental model of attention bias that underlies the association between fearful temperament and anxiety. We propose that the sub-components of effortful control (i.e., attentional control and inhibitory control) play different roles depending on individuals' temperaments, initial automatic biases, and goal priorities. Our model may help resolve some of the mixed findings and conflicts in the current literature. It may also advance our knowledge regarding the cognitive mechanisms linking fearful temperament and anxiety, as well as facilitate the continuing efforts in identifying and intervening with children who are at risk. Finally, we conclude the review with a discussion on the existing limitations and then propose questions for future research.

Theory of Mind as a Mechanism That Accounts for the Continuity or Discontinuity of Behavioral Inhibition: A Developmentally Informed Model of Risk for Social Anxiety

Research has established that children with high levels of early behavioral inhibition (BI) - a subdued, timid, fearful response to novel or mildly challenging stimuli or events - are at an elevated risk for social anxiety in later childhood and adolescence. Yet, substantial heterogeneity has been documented in those developmental trajectories; consequently, understanding factors that moderate children's paths from early BI to social anxiety is an important goal. We proposed that the association between children's BI at toddler age and social anxiety at early school age is (a) mediated by their BI at preschool age, and (b) moderated by the level of social understanding, or Theory of Mind (ToM). In 102 typically developing community children, we observed BI in the laboratory at age 2 and 4.5 in "Risk Room" paradigms and assessed ToM at age 4.5 and 5.5 using false belief tasks. Mothers and fathers rated children's social anxiety symptoms at age 6.5. We supported the proposed moderated mediation model, with the path from BI at age 2 to BI at age 4.5 to social anxiety at age 6.5 unfolding only for children whose ToM abilities were relatively low, but not for those whose ToM abilities were relatively high. Results also supported a curvilinear relation between ToM and social anxiety, which highlights the risk of elevated social anxiety for children with extremely low ToM abilities. Taken together, proficiency in mindreading may help inhibited children navigate social environments and thus reduce risks for social anxiety.

The Differential Victimization Associated With Depression and Anxiety in Cross-Cultural Perspective: A Meta-Analysis

Traditional bullying and cyberbullying have become serious worldwide issues. The meta-analysis in this article took a cross-cultural perspective to explore whether there were any differences between the effects of cyber victimization and traditional victimization on the presence of depression and anxiety in children and adolescents and to examine the effects of moderators in explaining these differences/similarities. Fifty-six empirical studies (generating 148 independent samples) were included with a total sample size of 214,819 participants. The results indicated that the effects of cyber victimization and the subtypes of traditional victimization on anxiety were significantly different, and there was a marginally significant difference for depression. The moderating effects of country of origin were found to be significant for depression, with the mean effect size in North America being significantly higher than in China and Europe, which suggested that culture was an important factor. The moderating effects of age were also found to be significant for the relationships between traditional victimization and depression, traditional victimization and anxiety, cyber victimization and depression, and cyber victimization and anxiety. In addition, the effect size for cyber victimization and depression has increased in more recent publication years.

The Interaction Between Child Behavioral Inhibition and Parenting Behaviors: Effects on Internalizing and Externalizing Symptomology

Both child temperament and parenting have been extensively researched as predictors of child outcomes. However, theoretical models suggest that specific combinations of temperament styles and parenting behaviors are better predictors of certain child outcomes such as internalizing and externalizing symptoms than either temperament or parenting alone. The current qualitative review examines the interaction between one childhood temperamental characteristic (child behavioral inhibition) and parenting behaviors, and their subsequent impact on child psychopathology. Specifically, the moderating role of parenting on the relationship between child behavioral inhibition and both internalizing and externalizing psychopathology is examined, and the methodological variations which may contribute to inconsistent findings are explored. Additionally, support for the bidirectional relations between behavioral inhibition and parenting behaviors, as well as for the moderating role of temperament on the relationships between parenting and child outcomes, is briefly discussed. Finally, the clinical applicability of this overall conceptual model, specifically in regard to future research directions and potential clinical interventions, is considered.

Stressful Life Events and Child Anxiety: Examining Parent and Child Mediators

While a number of factors have been linked with excessive anxiety (e.g., parenting, child temperament), the impact of stressful life events remains under-studied. Moreover, much of this literature has examined bivariate associations rather than testing more complex theoretical models. The current study extends the literature on life events and child anxiety by testing a theory-driven meditational model. Specifically, one child factor (child cognitions/locus of control), two parent factors (parent psychopathology and parenting stress), and two parent-child relationship factors (parent-child dysfunctional interaction and parenting style) were examined as mediators in the relationship between stressful life events and severity of child anxiety. One hundred and thirty anxious parents and their nonanxious, high-risk children (ages ranged from 7 to 13 years) participated in this study. Results indicated that levels of parenting stress, parental anxious rearing, and dysfunctional parent-child interaction mediated the association between stressful life events and severity of anxiety symptoms. Child cognition and parent psychopathology factors failed to emerge as mediators. Findings provide support for more complex theoretical models linking life events and child anxiety and suggest potential targets of intervention.

Temperament and Parenting Styles in Early Childhood Differentially Influence Neural Response to Peer Evaluation in Adolescence

Behavioral inhibition (BI) is a temperament characterized by social reticence and withdrawal from unfamiliar or novel contexts and conveys risk for social anxiety disorder. Developmental outcomes associated with this temperament can be influenced by children's caregiving context. The convergence of a child's temperamental disposition and rearing environment is ultimately expressed at both the behavioral and neural levels in emotional and cognitive response patterns to social challenges. The present study used functional neuroimaging to assess the moderating effects of different parenting styles on neural response to peer rejection in two groups of adolescents characterized by their early childhood temperament (M(age) = 17.89 years, N = 39, 17 males, 22 females; 18 with BI; 21 without BI). The moderating effects of authoritarian and authoritative parenting styles were examined in three brain regions linked with social anxiety: ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC), striatum, and amygdala. In youth characterized with BI in childhood, but not in those without BI, diminished responses to peer rejection in vlPFC were associated with higher levels of authoritarian parenting. In contrast, all youth showed decreased caudate response to peer rejection at higher levels of authoritative parenting. These findings indicate that BI in early life relates to greater neurobiological sensitivity to variance in parenting styles, particularly harsh parenting, in late adolescence. These results are discussed in relation to biopsychosocial models of development.

Negative evaluations of self and others, and peer victimization as mediators of the relationship between childhood adversity and psychotic experiences in adolescence: the moderating role of loneliness

OBJECTIVE

Previous research has identified an association between traumatic experiences and psychotic symptoms. Few studies, however, have explored the underlying mechanisms and contingent nature of these associations in an integrated model. This study aimed to test a moderated mediation model of negative childhood experiences, associated cognitive processes, and psychotic experiences within a context of adolescent loneliness.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional survey.

METHODS

A total of 785 Northern Irish secondary school adolescents completed the survey. A moderated mediation model was specified and tested.

RESULTS

Childhood experiences of threat and subordination were directly associated with psychotic experiences. Analyses indicated that peer victimization was a mediator of this effect and that loneliness moderated this mediated effect.

CONCLUSION

A new model is proposed to provide an alternative framework for assessing the association between trauma and psychotic experience in adolescence that recognizes loneliness as a significant contextual moderator that can potentially strengthen the trauma-psychosis relationship.

PRACTITIONER POINTS

Moderated mediation analyses poses an alternative framework to the understanding of trauma-psychosis associations Adolescent loneliness is a vulnerability factor within this association Data are based on a Northern Irish sample with relatively low levels of loneliness Cross-sectional data cannot explore the developmental course of these experiences in adolescence.