“Hudson et al. (2019). Early childhood predictors of anxiety in early adolescence.” – Article summary

Preschool children are more likely to experience anxiety symptoms and disorders over time if the child was inhibited (1), there is a history of maternal anxiety disorders (2) and when the mothers displayed high levels of overinvolvement (3). There is an increased risk for anxiety symptoms and disorders for inhibited children when the involvement of the mother is high at age four but not if the involvement of the mother is not high at age four.

Anxiety disorders are very prevalent and negatively impact multiple domains of functioning. They have the earliest age of onset of all major mental health disorders. There are several predictive factors of anxiety for a child:

1. Behaviourally inhibited temperament
   This refers to reactions of withdrawal, wariness, avoidance and shyness in unfamiliar situations. ‘
2. Maternal anxiety
   Anxiety of the mother appears to significantly predict the child’s anxiety.
3. Parental overinvolvement
   This can lead to reduced opportunities for exposure to novelty or potentially difficult situations, which reduces the child’s opportunities to determine accurate information about threat and coping.
4. Absence of a secure attachment
   This is a non-specific risk for both internalizing and externalizing disorders. The child may develop an internal working model in which they view themselves as incapable, the world as unsafe and others as untrustworthy when the child is unable to reliably elicit caregiver attention.

Parental negativity might also be a predictive factor, although this has been very inconsistent in research. It appears as if infant attachment moderates the relationship between temperament and social anxiety in adolescents. Inhibited children with an insecure attachment have an increased risk for social anxiety.

The number of maternal lifetime anxiety disorders and maternal over-involvement predicted the presence of an anxiety diagnosis. Maternal negativity did not appear to predict anxiety at the follow-up.

Preschool children with inhibited temperament were at risk for anxiety symptoms in early adolescence when their mothers displayed high over-involvement. This pattern did not hold for inhibited children when their mothers did not display high over-involvement. Parenting appears to play a moderating role in the development of anxiety symptoms. The attachment of a child did not significantly predict anxiety symptoms or disorders over time. Behavioural inhibition appears to predict anxiety disorders.