THE EFFECTS OF A STABLE DYSREGULATED FEAR PROFILE ON SOCIAL ANXIETY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD
Open Access
- Author:
- Rothermel, Emily
- Area of Honors:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Dr. Kristin Ann Buss, Thesis Supervisor
Kenneth N. Levy, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- child psychology
temperament
fear
dysregulated fear
social anxiety disorder
social withdrawal
social inhibition
asocial with peers
behavior - Abstract:
- Fearful temperament is one of the best early predictors of the development of social anxiety in childhood. Among the characterization of this temperament style is a model suggesting that it is not how much, or how intensely children experience fear, but when and under what circumstances that is critical to predicting this risk, that is, when the fear is considered dysregulated. This study examined the effect of a dysregulated fear profile on the development of social anxiety symptoms in young children. At age two, children participated in six novel, fear-evoking episodes and at age five, children participated in a similar set of novel episodes. One episode classified as low-threat and one classified as high-threat at each age were used to determine their fearful temperament. Children displaying intense fear specifically in low threat scenarios are considered to have a dysregulated fear profile. It was predicted that if a child displayed a stable dysregulated fear profile at age two and age five, then they were at an increased risk for developing social anxiety symptoms during kindergarten. Using fear composite scores, three groups of children were identified at age 2 and age 5: (1) Normative Fear Profile (low fear in low threat contexts, high fear in high threat contexts), (2) Moderate Fear Profile (moderate fear across all tasks), and (3) Dysregulated Fear Profile (consistently high fear across all tasks). Because of the small sample of participants who displayed a stable dysregulated fear profile, accurate predictions about social anxiety from this profile could not be determined. Instead, predictors of social anxiety at kindergarten were examined under the context of each age group separately, and it was found that the age 2 dysregulated fear profile best predicted social anxiety symptoms at kindergarten.