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Childhood predictors of states of anxiety

Jerome Kagan1

  • 1Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass, USA.

Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience
|October 29, 2011
PubMed

Insights

Early childhood high reactivity predicts later social anxiety symptoms. This temperamental bias, characterized by vigorous activity and crying, is linked to specific biological markers and a higher likelihood of developing social phobia characteristics.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Psychiatry

Background:

  • Social phobia development often involves a temperamental predisposition.
  • High reactivity, a behavioral profile in infancy, is observed in approximately 20% of healthy Caucasian infants.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the long-term predictive relationship between early high reactivity and the development of social phobia characteristics.
  • To identify biological correlates of high reactivity and their association with later social anxiety symptoms.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal study tracking behavioral and biological markers from infancy to age 11.
  • Assessment of behavioral profiles (high reactivity) in 4-month-old infants.
  • Measurement of electroencephalogram (EEG) activity, cardiovascular sympathetic tone, and event-related potentials at age 11.

Main Results:

  • High reactivity in infancy predicted shy behavior in preschool and social anxiety symptoms at age 7.
  • At age 11, high-reactive children exhibited subdued personalities and biological markers consistent with amygdalar excitability, including right-hemisphere EEG activity and larger evoked potentials.
  • Approximately 25% of high-reactive 11-year-olds showed behavioral and biological profiles aligning with amygdalar excitability.

Conclusions:

  • A modest temperamental contribution from early high reactivity influences the development of social phobia symptoms.
  • Early behavioral and biological markers can predict later social anxiety development, supporting the amygdalar excitability hypothesis.

Keywords:
anxietychildrensocial phobiatemperament

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