Which Subtypes of Anxiety are Associated With Reading Difficulties?

• In Event: Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Topic - Education, Schooling

Abstract

Objective: Children with reading difficulties are at elevated risk for anxiety compared to peers with typical reading development. Unfortunately, this comorbidity has been understudied, resulting in a lack of understanding of the mechanisms underlying the co-occurrence of these disorders, and inadequate treatment approaches. Few studies examining this comorbidity have differentiated between anxiety subtypes, and those that have present conflicting results. The current study aims to clarify these findings by exploring which subtypes of anxiety are most strongly related to reading difficulties using two large youth samples.
Participants and Methods: The first sample had an enriched representation of children with a history of reading difficulties (36.8%) and included 755 children ages 8-16 from the Colorado Learning Disability Research Center (CLDRC). A single-word reading composite was generated using two standardized single-word reading subtests from the Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT) and an experimental reading test. Anxiety was assessed using the self-report Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS), which includes subscales for Social/Concentration, Worry/Oversensitivity, and Physiological anxiety.
The second sample was population-based and included 1,784 participants ages 11-16 from the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (PNC). Reading was indexed by the Word Reading subtest of the Wide-Range Achievement Test-4. Social, separation, and generalized anxiety symptoms were assessed using self-reports on a computerized adaptation of the Kiddie-Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children, Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL).
Results: In the CLDRC sample, lower reading was significantly associated with higher scores on the RCMAS Social/Concentration (R2=.008, p=.001) subscale when controlling for age, sex, and ADHD symptoms, but not with the RCMAS Worry/Oversensitivity or Physiological subscales. Only the RCMAS Social/Concentration subscale retained a unique association with lower reading (R2=.008, p=.001) when each of the three RCMAS subscales were entered into the regression model simultaneously.
In the PNC sample, lower reading was significantly associated with higher social anxiety when controlling for age, sex, and ADHD symptoms (R2=.014, p<.001), but not with separation or generalized anxiety. Additionally, when social, separation, and generalized anxiety scores were entered into the regression model simultaneously, social anxiety remained uniquely associated with lower reading scores (R2=.023, p<.001).
Conclusions: Across both the clinical and population-based samples, lower reading scores were significantly associated with higher social anxiety scores. This association between reading and social anxiety is notable, given that it holds across differences in measurement and sample composition. Furthermore, this relationship remained significant after controlling for ADHD, which has been shown previously to account for the co-occurrence of reading difficulties and other internalizing symptoms. These findings can inform future research into the nature of the comorbidity between reading difficulties and anxiety and may suggest that comparison of self to peers and/or negative social feedback play a role in the development or maintenance of this comorbidity. Additionally, results can inform the development of appropriate interventions in cases of comorbid reading and anxiety difficulties. Specifically, future research should examine whether interventions involving reading aloud in groups may inadvertently contribute to increased avoidance of reading and limit response to interventions in individuals predisposed to social anxiety symptoms.

Authors

• Nina Jean Anderson, University of Denver
  Presenting Author

• Jamie S. Neiman
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rebecca Slomowitz, University of Denver
  Non-Presenting Author

• Maria Crossland
  Non-Presenting Author

• Holly Wakeman, University of Colorado Boulder
  Non-Presenting Author

• Bruce F. Pennington, University of Denver
  Non-Presenting Author

• Erik G. Willcutt, University of Colorado Boulder
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lauren M. McGrath, University of Denver
  Non-Presenting Author