Mother-Child Dynamics in the Transmission of Social Anxiety: The Roles of Maternal Verbal Communication and Child Attention

项目总结 母亲的社交焦虑与孩子的社交焦虑相关，这表明母亲会传递社交焦虑 给他们的孩子。解释这种传播的一种途径是通过儿童从他们的 母亲们。童年后期是社交焦虑的重要发育期，也是社交焦虑产生的重要时期 在此期间与不良的生活结局有关。因此，迫切需要了解社会 在此期间，孩子从母亲那里获得社交焦虑的过程。儿童可以 由于注意到母亲在社交方面的负面言语交流而患上社交焦虑 情况。我们的初步发现支持了这一假说，即母亲的负面言语 沟通通过中介将社交恐惧从母亲传递给孩子。然而，母性有多强 社交焦虑塑造了与恐惧相关的母子沟通的时时刻刻的动态 刺激在很大程度上是未知的。更多社交焦虑的母亲可能会通过以下途径将社交焦虑传递给孩子 消极的言语交流和/或通过促进僵化的二元互动模式 长期关注消极的社会投入。该项目的目的是(A)检查产妇 负面言语沟通中介母亲社交焦虑对孩子实验室的影响-- 基于社会恐惧，(B)检查母子二重僵化(即，孩子在照顾 母亲负输入)中介母亲社交焦虑对儿童基于实验室的社交的影响 恐惧，(C)考察母亲的负面言语交流和二元僵化在 6个月后母亲社交焦虑与儿童社交焦虑的关系。一百零九-十二年- 大孩子和他们的母亲将参加一次实验室访问，并完成两周的问卷调查 在这次访问之前和之后6个月。在访问期间，二人组将完成一项母婴社交任务 在此期间，母亲们将与她们的孩子谈论两个假设的同龄人。在这项任务之前，母亲们会 接收关于一个对等体的正面信息和关于另一个对等体的负面信息。母亲们会 被指示在对话中显示这些同龄人的照片。儿童参赛者将穿着舒适 移动眼球跟踪眼镜和他们的视觉注意力将两个同龄人的照片和他们的母亲的脸 在谈话过程中被追踪到。儿童对母亲的积极和消极的社会投入将受到 使用动态系统方法(即状态空间网格)进行检查。这个项目完成后，我将拥有 测试了两种可能的机制，母亲可能通过这些机制将社交焦虑传递给她们的孩子。建议数 这项研究将对母亲如何将社交焦虑转移到 这可能为以家庭为基础的干预提供新的目标。我还将接受深入的培训 在(A)动态系统办法的理论和方法中，(B)在下列情况下使用移动眼球跟踪 动态社会互动和(C)用于预防儿童焦虑问题的干预措施。

PROJECT SUMMARY Maternal social anxiety is associated with child social anxiety, suggesting that mothers transmit social anxiety to their children. One pathway to explain this transmission is through children’s social learning from their mothers. Late childhood is an important period for the onset of social anxiety and social anxiety emerging during this period is associated with adverse life outcomes. Thus, there is critical need to understand the social processes through which children acquire social anxiety from their mothers during this period. Children may acquire social anxiety as a result of attending to their mothers’ negative verbal communication regarding social situations. Our preliminary findings provided support for this hypothesis showing that maternal negative verbal communication mediates the transmission of social fear from mothers to children. However, how maternal social anxiety shapes the moment-to-moment dynamics of mother-child communication regarding fear-relevant stimuli is largely unknown. More socially anxious mothers may transmit social anxiety to their children through negative verbal communication and/or by facilitating a rigid dyadic interaction pattern during which children attend to negative social input for extensive durations. This project’s aims are to (a) examine whether maternal negative verbal communication mediates the influence of maternal social anxiety on children’s laboratory- based social fear, (b) examine whether mother-child dyadic rigidity (i.e., perseveration in child attending to negative maternal input) mediates the influence of maternal social anxiety on children’s laboratory-based social fear, (c) examine the mediating roles of maternal negative verbal communication and dyadic rigidity in the association between maternal social anxiety and child social anxiety 6 months later. One hundred 9-12-year- old children and their mothers will participate in one laboratory visit and complete questionnaires 2-weeks before and 6 months after this visit. During the visit, dyads will complete a mother-child social interaction task during which mothers will talk about two hypothetical peers with their children. Prior to this task, mothers will receive positive information regarding one peer and negative information regarding the other peer. Mothers will be instructed to show the pictures of these peers during conversations. Child participants will wear comfortable mobile eye-tracking glasses and their visual attention to the two peer pictures and their mother’s face will be tracked during the conversations. Child attention to maternal positive and negative social input will be examined using a dynamic systems method (i.e., state space grids). Upon completion of this project, I will have tested two possible mechanisms by which mothers may transmit social anxiety to their children. The proposed study will make a significant contribution to the scientific knowledge on how mothers transfer social anxiety to their children and may provide a novel target for family-based interventions. I will also receive in-depth training in (a) theories and methods of dynamic systems approaches, (b) use of mobile eye-tracking in the context of dynamic social interactions and (c) interventions used in the prevention of childhood anxiety problems.