Cooper P J, Eke M
Department of Psychology, University of Reading, UK.
Br J Psychiatry. 1999 May;174:439-43. doi: 10.1192/bjp.174.5.439.
Family history data suggest the possibility of an association between childhood shyness and parental social phobia.
To examine the prevalence of maternal affective disorder in a community sample of four-year-old shy and non-shy children.
By screening 867 children, 43 shy children, 59 children with another form of disturbance (i.e. fearfulness, feeding problem or conduct problem) and 26 children with no disturbance were identified. Interviewers who were unaware of child status used a standardised mental state assessment to determine the rate of affective disorder in the mothers of these children.
Compared with the mothers of the children in both comparison groups, the mothers of the children who were purely shy (i.e. shy children with no comorbid condition) had a significantly raised lifetime rate of anxiety disorder in general, and social phobia in particular. The odds ratio of a social phobia in the mothers of the purely shy children was raised over the normal control group by a factor of more than seven.
These findings suggest a specific association between childhood shyness and maternal social phobia.
家族史数据表明儿童期害羞与父母社交恐惧症之间可能存在关联。
调查在一个四岁害羞和不害羞儿童的社区样本中母亲情感障碍的患病率。
通过筛查867名儿童，确定了43名害羞儿童、59名有其他形式障碍（即恐惧、喂养问题或行为问题）的儿童以及26名无障碍儿童。不了解儿童状况的访谈者使用标准化精神状态评估来确定这些儿童母亲中情感障碍的发生率。
与两个对照组儿童的母亲相比，单纯害羞儿童（即无共病情况的害羞儿童）的母亲总体上焦虑障碍的终生患病率显著升高，尤其是社交恐惧症。单纯害羞儿童母亲患社交恐惧症的优势比相对于正常对照组提高了七倍多。
这些发现表明儿童期害羞与母亲社交恐惧症之间存在特定关联。
