Poster #55 - Childhood Shyness, Anxiety and Depression Multitrajectories: Links to Adolescent Social Phobia, Generalized Anxiety and Depression

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

This study tested the specificity of associations between childhood multi-trajectories of shyness, anxiety and depression symptoms and adolescent symptoms of social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and depression. A population sample of 1596 children was followed over 15 years to address two objectives: (1) Simultaneously identify the developmental patterns of shyness, anxiety and depression symptoms from infancy to mid-childhood using multi-trajectory analysis. (2) Examine the distinct contribution of these multi-trajectories to the prediction of self-reported social phobia, GAD and depression symptoms at 15 years-old, while controlling for risk and resilience factors.

Mothers rated child shyness, anxiety and depression at 1½, 2½, 3½, 4½, 5, 6 and 8 years-old, using items from the Preschool Behavior Questionnaire (Behar & Stringfield, 1974). Adolescents self-reported symptoms of social phobia, GAD and depression at 15 years-old using the Mental Health and Social Inadaptation Assessment for Adolescents (MIA; Côté et al., 2017). Socio-demographic information including child sex, birth weight, maternal smoking during pregnancy and maternal age was collected when the child was 5 months of age. Furthermore, six longitudinal socio-environmental adversity/resilience composite variables (socio-economic status; negative parenting; positive parenting; parent’s deviant behavior; parent’s mental health; and child peer relationships) were composed from 108 socio-demographic variables collected from both parents when the child was 5 months, 1½, 2½, 3½, 4½ and 5 years-old.

Group-based developmental multi-trajectories, an extension of a semiparametric mixture model which allows simultaneous estimation of trajectories for multiple outcomes (Nagin, et al., 2016), were modeled from 1½ to 8 years for shyness, anxiety and depression symptoms using proc traj in STATA. We identified six groups of children with distinct trajectories of shyness, anxiety and depression (Figure 1): 1) all low multi-trajectory group, 2) moderate shyness with low anxiety and depression group, 3) low shyness with moderate anxiety and depression group, 4) all moderate group 5) high shyness with moderate anxiety and depression and, 6) an all high multi-trajectory group. Children exhibited rising levels of anxiety and depression in all six groups, whereas low level shyness trajectories were stable, while the moderate and high shyness trajectories exhibited a slight rise followed by a slight decrease of symptoms.

Hierarchical regression analyses were performed for each adolescent outcome separately (social phobia, GAD and depression) contrasting the multi-trajectory groups with the all moderate group while controlling for risk factors (Table 1). Low anxiety and depression in childhood were associated with lower GAD and depression symptoms in adolescence. Higher childhood shyness was related to social phobia in adolescence. Higher shyness in girls was a protective factor for GAD and depression.

This study highlights, in a general population, the importance of monitoring and distinguishing different types of internalizing behaviors and symptoms, particularly shyness, along developmental trajectories when assessing the risk of future psychopathology.

Authors

• Magdalena Zdebik, Université du Québec en Outaouais
  Presenting Author

• Marilyn Ahun, University of Montreal
  Non-Presenting Author

• Michel Boivin, Laval University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marco Battaglia, University of Toronto
  Non-Presenting Author

• Richard Ernest Tremblay, University of Montreal
  Non-Presenting Author

• Bruno Falissard, U669, Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sylvana Côté, University of Montreal
  Non-Presenting Author