Behavioral inhibition and anxiety disorders: multiple levels of a resilience process

Dev Psychopathol. 2007 Summer;19(3):729-46. doi: 10.1017/S0954579407000363.

Abstract

Behavioral inhibition is reported to be one of the most stable temperamental characteristics in childhood. However, there is also evidence for discontinuity of this trait, with infants and toddlers who were extremely inhibited displaying less withdrawn social behavior as school-age children or adolescents. There are many possible explanations for the discontinuity in this temperament over time. They include the development of adaptive attention and regulatory skills, the influence of particular styles of parenting or caregiving contexts, and individual characteristics of the child such as their level of approach-withdrawal motivation or their gender. These discontinuous trajectories of behaviorally inhibited children and the factors that form them are discussed as examples of the resilience process.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Adaptation, Psychological
  • Anxiety Disorders / diagnosis
  • Anxiety Disorders / epidemiology*
  • Anxiety Disorders / psychology
  • Attention
  • Caregivers
  • Child Behavior / psychology*
  • Child, Preschool
  • Cognition Disorders / diagnosis
  • Cognition Disorders / epidemiology
  • Electroencephalography
  • Frontal Lobe / physiology
  • Heart Rate / physiology
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Inhibition, Psychological*
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Parenting
  • Social Alienation
  • Social Behavior
  • Temperament