Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, 11794-2500, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol. 2022 Oct;50(10):1327-1338. doi: 10.1007/s10802-022-00942-0. Epub 2022 Jun 11.
Numerous studies in children, adolescents and adults have reported that anxiety disorders and symptoms are associated with greater threat-potentiated startle responses. This suggests that it may also be related to risk factors that have been implicated in the genesis of anxiety disorders. Therefore, we examined the roles of early childhood temperamental behavioral inhibition (BI) and parental history of anxiety disorders in predicting threat-potentiated startle response in a community sample of 346 adolescents. Parental history of anxiety disorders moderated the effects of BI on subsequent startle responses. For both total startle response and unpredictable threat startle potentiation, higher levels of BI at age 3 predicted larger startle responses at age 15, but only among offspring of parents with a history of anxiety disorders. Among offspring of parents with no lifetime history of anxiety disorder, BI was unrelated to startle magnitude. These findings were evident even after adjusting for youth's biological sex, concurrent anxiety symptoms, and lifetime history of anxiety disorders. In contrast, neither BI nor parental anxiety significantly predicted startle potentiation to predictable threat. These findings have implications for tracing pathways to the development of anxiety disorders.
许多针对儿童、青少年和成年人的研究报告指出，焦虑症和症状与更大的威胁增强性惊跳反应有关。这表明，它可能也与焦虑症发病机制中涉及的风险因素有关。因此，我们在一个由 346 名青少年组成的社区样本中，研究了儿童早期气质行为抑制（BI）和父母焦虑症病史在预测威胁增强性惊跳反应中的作用。父母焦虑症病史调节了 BI 对后续惊跳反应的影响。对于总惊跳反应和不可预测威胁的惊跳增强，3 岁时较高的 BI 水平预测 15 岁时更大的惊跳反应，但仅在父母有焦虑症病史的后代中。在父母一生中没有焦虑症病史的后代中，BI 与惊跳幅度无关。即使在调整了青少年的生物性别、当前的焦虑症状和焦虑症的终生病史后，这些发现仍然明显。相比之下，BI 和父母焦虑都没有显著预测对可预测威胁的惊跳增强。这些发现对于追踪焦虑症发展的途径具有重要意义。
