Poster #52 - Discrete Parent Symptoms Uniquely Predict a Neural Marker of Child Risk for Anxiety Problems

• In Event: 3-106 - Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

Anxiety disorders are one of the most prevalent types of mental health disorders across the lifespan (Behavioral Health, 2012). Prevalence rates for Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and Social Anxiety Disorder (Social Phobia; SP) are particularly high among women (APA, 2013), many of whom are mothers. Evidence suggests that high levels of maternal anxiety increase the likelihood of anxiety problems in offspring (Cole, et al., 2004; Van de Heuvel, et al., 2017); however, the mechanisms of this effect are unclear. The error-related negativity (ERN) is an event-related potential that peaks at frontocentral midline scalp recording sites 50 to 100 ms following an incorrect behavioral response (Falkenstein, et al., 1991) that has been posited as putative marker of anxiety risk in early life. Previous research identified links between the ERN and discrete anxiety symptoms in anxious children (Lo, et al., 2017), suggesting that the ERN may specifically denote the presence of separation anxiety symptoms before age 9. However, it is unknown whether discrete anxiety symptoms in parents, for whom rates of separation anxiety are low, predict the ERN in offspring, leaving unclear the process by which risk is conferred. We tested maternal GAD and SP symptoms as predictors of the ERN in 3-year-old children --- the earliest age at which ERN has been observed (Brooker, 2018) and well before disorders develop.
We assessed GAD symptoms in parents at child ages 3 and 4 years using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Screening Tool-IV (GADQ-IV), a self-report measure designed to screen for DSM-IV- defined GAD symptoms. Social anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS). Separate multiple regressions were used to predict child ERN amplitudes at ages 3 and 4 years from discrete maternal symptoms.
Greater maternal GAD symptoms at age 3 predicted smaller ERN amplitudes at age 4 (FCz; B = 1.711, SE(B) = p = .044). In contrast, greater maternal report of SP symptoms when children were 4 years old was linked to smaller child ERN at age 4: (Fz, r(54) = 0.291, p<.05 and Pz, r(54) = 0.279, p<.05). Only maternal GAD symptoms predicted ERN longitudinally. Results are consistent with previous literature indicating greater maternal symptoms predict smaller child ERN (Lo et al., 2017; Meyer, Weinberg, Klein, & Hajcak, 2012). However, our results expand these findings to identify a pattern by which discrete maternal symptoms of GAD appear to be the best predictor for subsequent risk for anxiety problems (greater ERN amplitudes) at age 4 years, well before anxiety disorders are typically diagnosed.

Authors

• Tristin Nyman, Texas A&M University
  Presenting Author

• Rebecca Brooker, Texas A&M
  Non-Presenting Author