Youth Anxiety and Internalizing Symptoms: Correlations With Perceived Parenting Behavior and Error-Related Brain Potentials

• In Event: Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Topic - Developmental Psychopathology

Abstract

Anxiety is a major prevalent psychiatric disorder characterized by distress and worry that can emerge early in development and affect cognitive processes key to daily functioning, including cognitive control (Beesdo et al., 2009; Eisenberg et al., 2009). Past research has used event-related potentials (ERPs) to better delineate this relationship. Two ERPs, error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe), are often used as neurophysiological markers of cognitive control in adults and children (Yeung & Summerfield, 2012; Grammer et al., 2014). Research has shown that anxious children typically display a larger ERN (Ladoucer et al., 2006), suggesting an increase in cognitive resource allocation (Moser, 2017). Some research supports anxious adults displaying a smaller Pe (Moser et al., 2011), which suggests reduced cognitive awareness to errors (Hajcak et al., 2004); this may indicate a similar Pe response in anxious children. Research has also found that unique environmental factors help explain individual differences in the development of anxiety (Hetteman et al., 2005), with parenting behavior being an important factor affecting psychopathological development (Gardner & Shaw, 2008). Therefore, it is important to study parenting alongside the anxiety-ERN relationship. A large review concluded that positive parenting was associated with lower adolescent anxiety and internalizing symptoms; and negative parenting was associated with higher risk of anxiety and internalizing symptoms (Clayborne et al., 2020). Internalizing problems encompass withdrawal, anxiety, and depression symptoms. In addition to the parenting-anxiety relationship, research has found evidence for negative parenting being related to a larger youth ERN (Chong, L. J. et al., 2020). This suggests that parenting plays a role in the development of childhood anxiety, which may affect the development of cognitive control mechanisms. Consequently, this study sought to investigate the relationship between parenting, anxiety/internalizing symptoms, and the ERN and Pe. The study included 123 children, ages eight to 13 (M=10.58; SD=1.68), reporting on their perception of parenting behavior using the Parent Perception Inventory (PPI). Parents separately completed the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS-P) about their child’s anxiety and internalizing symptoms. Children performed a flanker task to elicit the ERN and Pe, specified from 0-100 ms and 150-550 ms, respectively. Results indicated that anxiety was significantly related to a larger ERN (r= -.179, p=.035). Internalizing symptoms, however, were significantly related to a smaller ERN (r=.175, p= .04), but larger Pe (r=.174, p=.04). Both maternal and paternal parenting were significantly related to internalizing symptoms in that negative parenting correlated to more internalizing (r=.264, p=.004), and positive parenting correlated to less internalizing symptoms (r= -.236, p=.01). Lastly, maternal and paternal parenting differentially related to ERPs in that negative maternal parenting related to a smaller ERN (r=.212, p=.018), and negative paternal parenting related to a larger ERN (r= -.275, p=.002); negative parenting related to a smaller Pe (r= -.187, p=.038), and positive maternal parenting related to a larger Pe (r=.222, p=.013). While some of the findings are consistent with past research, the contrasting results further emphasizes the need to clarify how parenting behavior affects anxiety and related cognitive development.

Authors

• Kathy Sem, Boston University
  Presenting Author

• Alycia Marie Winters, Michigan State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jason Scot Moser, Michigan State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• C. Emily Durbin, Michigan State University
  Non-Presenting Author