Parents' behavioral inhibition moderates association of preschoolers' BI with risk for age 9 anxiety disorders

Abstract

Background: Temperamental behavioral inhibition (BI) in children predicts later anxiety disorders. However, many children with BI do not develop anxiety disorders, suggesting the importance of identifying moderating factors. The current study examined whether parents' history of BI moderates the associations between preschoolers' BI and anxiety disorders at age 9.

Methods: The sample was 392 children and their parents from the community. Child BI was measured at age 3 using observational (Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery; Lab-TAB) and parent report (Behavior Inhibition Questionnaire; BIQ) measures. In addition, both parents reported on their own history of childhood BI using the Retrospective Measure of Behavioral Inhibition (RMBI). When the children were 9 years old, a parent and the child were interviewed using the Kiddie Schedule for the Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia - Present and Lifetime version (K-SADS-PL).

Results: Parents' reports of their own BI moderated the associations of both observed and parent-reported child BI at age 3 with children's anxiety disorders at age 9. Among children whose parents reported having had higher childhood BI, those who exhibited high BI at age 3 were more likely to meet criteria for anxiety disorders at age 9.

Limitations: The major limitation is the use of a retrospective measure of parental BI.

Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that parents' histories of childhood BI moderate the association between their young children's BI and subsequent anxiety disorders. Thus, parental BI appears to identify a subgroup of BI children at particularly high risk for developing anxiety disorders by late childhood.

Keywords: Anxiety; Behavioral Inhibition; Child; Parent; Risk.

Figure 1

The interaction between age 3 child Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery Behavioral Inhibition (BI) and parental retrospective self-reported BI predicting child current anxiety diagnosis at age 9 (top) and child lifetime anxiety diagnosis at age 9 (bottom). Variables on the x-axis are centered. The upper and lower values represent +/− 1 SD of the mean, which is 0.

Figure 1

The interaction between age 3 child Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery Behavioral Inhibition (BI) and parental retrospective self-reported BI predicting child current anxiety diagnosis at age 9 (top) and child lifetime anxiety diagnosis at age 9 (bottom). Variables on the x-axis are centered. The upper and lower values represent +/− 1 SD of the mean, which is 0.

Figure 2

The interaction between age 3 parent-reported child BI and retrospectively self-reported parent BI predicting age 9 current anxiety diagnosis. Variables on the x-axis are centered. The upper and lower values represent +/− 1 SD of the mean, which is 0.