2-052 - Intervening in the Lives of Socially Anxious and Wary Children

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The production of extremely wary behavior in social settings is a risk factor for the later development of such internalizing problems as anxiety disorders (Rubin, Coplan, & Bowker, 2009). Early impairments associated with social wariness are maintained and often exacerbated by early environmental experiences. For example, reticence increases over time when mothers are more restrictive. When parents respond with warmth, sensitivity, and encouragement to approach feared situations, their children are redirected from a pathway of negative outcomes. Socially wary children are also less likely to initiate interactions in the peer group and are often rejected and excluded by their age-mates, which, in turn, exacerbates negative outcomes for them. These findings suggest the need for intervention that directly targets risk and protective factors implicated in the development of internalizing problems associated with social wariness, namely parenting, social competence, and emotion regulation. Paper 1 examines, in a Chinese sample, an intervention designed to improve extremely shy preschoolers’ social and emotion regulation skills. Paper 2 compares, in a sample comprising a highly anxious, mostly Latino population, two cognitive behavioral therapy interventions aimed at reducing anxiety and depressive symptoms – one directed to alter the behavior of parents; the other to directly alter the behaviors of children. Paper 3 examines the efficacy of Parent Child Intervention Therapy plus a child directed social skills and emotion regulation program in reducing anxiety symptoms in a sample of highly inhibited preschoolers. An eminent scholar who specializes in the study of social anxiety will discuss the three studies

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chair

• Kenneth H Rubin, University of Maryland, College Park

Discussant

• Dina Hirshfeld-Becker, Massachusetts General Hospital

Individual Presentations

• Preliminary Evaluation of a Social Skills and Facilitated Play Early Intervention Program for Extremely Shy Children in China - Presenting Author: Robert J. Coplan, Carleton University; Yan Li, Shanghai Normal University; Yuemin Wang, Department of Early Childhood Education , Shanghai Normal University; Jingtong Yin, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China; Jingjing Zhu, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China

• Mediation of Change in Social Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in Childhood Anxiety Treatment - Presenting Author: Luci Motoca, Virginia Commonwealth University; Carla Eugenia Marin, Yale University; Yasmin Rey, Florida International University; Jeremy Pettit, Florida International University; Wendy K. Silverman, Yale School of Medicine

• Preliminary evaluation of a multi-modal early intervention program for behaviorally inhibited preschoolers - Presenting Author: Andrea Chronis-Tuscano, Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo; Kenneth H Rubin, University of Maryland, College Park; Kelly A. O''Brien, University of Maryland; Robert J. Coplan, Carleton University; Lea Rose Dougherty, University of Maryland, College Park; Sharon Renee Thomas, University of Maryland; Charissa Siew Lyng Cheah, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Sara Heverly-Fitt, University of Maryland, College Park; Melissa Menzer, National Endowment for the Arts; Maureen Wimsatt, University of Maryland