Abstract
Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) exhibit striking social behaviour that may be indicative of abnormally low social anxiety. The present research aimed to determine whether social anxiety is unusually low in WS and to replicate previous findings of increased generalised anxiety in WS using both parent and self report. Fifteen individuals with WS aged 12–28 years completed the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS) and the Children’s Automatic Thoughts Scale (CATS). Their responses were compared to clinically anxious and community comparison groups matched on mental age. The findings suggest that WS is not associated with unusually low social anxiety but that generalised anxiety symptoms and physical threat thoughts are increased in WS, relative to typically developing children.
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Notes
All analyses were also conducted using data from all six SCAS scales. Bonferroni corrected p values were used to indicate statistical significance. For both parent-report and self-report, the WS group did not differ significantly from the community comparison group on any of the three additional scales (p > 0.008). Based on parent-report, simple contrasts indicated that the clinically anxious group scored significantly higher than the WS group on the Separation Anxiety scale (p < 0.008) but not the Obsessive Compulsive or Panic/Agoraphobia scale. Finally, using self-report to compare the WS and clinically anxious group, no significant interaction between group and scale was found when all six scales were included; consequently, no further analyses were conducted.
The ‘Physical Threat’ scale of the CATS includes the following items: ‘I’m going to have an accident’; ‘I’m going crazy’; ‘I’m going to die’; ‘My Mum and Dad are going to get hurt’; ‘I’m scared of loosing control’; ‘I’m going to get hurt’; ‘Something awful is going to happen’; ‘I’m scared somebody might die’; ‘There is something very wrong with me’; ‘Something will happen to someone I care about’.
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The authors would like to thank the families and individuals who participated and Dr Alan Taylor for statistical advice.
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Dodd, H.F., Schniering, C.A. & Porter, M.A. Beyond Behaviour: Is Social Anxiety Low in Williams Syndrome?. J Autism Dev Disord 39, 1673–1681 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-0806-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-0806-4