Perinatal Complications Tied to Childhood Social Anxiety

THURSDAY, April 18, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Perinatal complications are associated with behavioral inhibition and social anxiety in children, according to a study published online March 19 in Infant and Child Development.

Gabriela L. Suarez, from the University of Maryland in College Park, and colleagues assessed the relation between perinatal complications and social anxiety while accounting for the potential indirect effect of child temperament. The authors screened 149 children aged 9 to 12 years for behavioral inhibition and assessed social anxiety symptoms based on parent and child reports.

The researchers found that children who experienced perinatal complications scored higher in behavioral inhibition and social anxiety than children who did not experience complications. An indirect effect was seen between perinatal complications and social anxiety mediated by behavioral inhibition.

“These findings provide further support for the established relation between perinatal complications and anxiety and demonstrate, for the first time, that this relation may be mediated by temperament, setting the stage for longitudinal analyses,” the authors write.

Abstract/Full Text