Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
New researchPreschool Environment and Temperament as Predictors of Social and Nonsocial Anxiety Disorders in Middle Adolescence
Section snippets
Participants
Participants in the study included 91 young persons with a mean age of 15.4 years (standard deviation [SD] = 0.9 year; range = 12.4–17.2 years). Participants were initially recruited when they were at preschool age (mean = 3.8 years; SD = 0.4 year; range = 3.0–4.6 years) through 95 preschools in the Sydney area. Mothers of the children at that time returned a screening measure of inhibition (Short Temperament Scale for Children),38 and those scoring high or low (>30 or <15) on the approach
Categorical Associations Between Behavioral Inhibition and Diagnostic Status
The number of adolescents in each group who met DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for each of the major anxiety disorders was compared (Table 1). Participants in the BI group were significantly more likely to meet criteria for social anxiety disorder [χ2(1, N = 91) = 5.11, p = .02] and any anxiety disorder [χ2(1, N = 91) = 5.37, p = .02]. The groups did not differ significantly on the number with separation anxiety disorder [χ2(1, N = 91) = 1.22, p = .27], generalized anxiety disorder [χ2(1, N = 91) =
Discussion
The current results show a clear relationship between early behavioral inhibition and adolescent anxiety disorders. Consistent with most previous research, this relationship was significant only for social anxiety disorder.19, 20 Conceptually social anxiety disorder and behavioral inhibition have marked similarities, and, in many ways, it is difficult to distinguish high social anxiety from high behavioral inhibition.16 At the very least, the temporal relationship between these constructs
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Dr. Rapee is with the Centre for Emotional Health, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
This research was supported by grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council and Australian Rotary Health to the author.
The author extends his deepest thanks to Dianne Swinsburg MClinPsy, of the Heart Centre for Children, Children's Hospital, Westmead, without whose tenacity and attention to detail, we would not have achieved these great recruitment rates. Thanks are also given to the original research team, Lynn Sweeney PhD, of the Australian Psychological Society, Susan Kennedy PhD, of the Roseville Anxiety Clinic, Michelle Ingram MClinPsy, of Kids and Co., and Susan Edwards PhD, of Northern Beaches Psychology Clinic.
Disclosure: Dr. Rapee reports no biomedical financial interests or conflicts of interest.
This article can be used to obtain continuing medical education (CME) at www.jaacap.org.