A new study published in Infant and Child Development indicates that complications during birth may increase the risk that children will develop social anxiety by their pre-teen years.
A new study published in Infant and Child Development indicates that complications during birth may increase the risk that children will develop social anxiety by their pre-teen years.
For the study, 149 children aged nine to 12 years were screened for behavioral inhibition—a tendency to exhibit a fearful disposition and withdrawal in unfamiliar contexts and situations—and assessed for social anxiety symptoms using parent- and child-reports. Investigators found that perinatal complications were associated with higher levels of behavioral inhibition and social anxiety symptoms.
Additionally, analyses suggested that behavioral inhibition acted as a pathway between birth complications and social anxiety symptoms.
“This study sets the stage for future longitudinal work examining whether childhood temperament is a developmental path by which birth complications lead to social anxiety symptoms,” said lead author Dr. Santiago Morales, of the University of Maryland.
Additional Information
Link to Study: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/icd.2130
About Journal
Infant and Child Development aims to publish the best contemporary research in developmental psychology through empirical, theoretical and methodological papers addressing psychological development from the prenatal period to adolescence. The journal welcomes brief empirical reports (up to 3000 words), and longer reports on a sequence of studies, reviews or theoretical papers (normally up to 8000 words). With a readership including researchers in developmental psychology, but also child practitioners in health and education, the journal publishes research addressing typical and atypical development across the range of human behaviour and experience including socio-emotional, cognitive, perceptual, motor, and language development. Infant and Child Development is particularly keen to publish research which elucidates processes and mechanisms of development, and which extends or challenges accepted ways of thinking.
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