Kenneth H Rubin, Ph.D. - US grants

The goal of this project is to examine the social skills, self-perceptions, and social relationships of 11-year-old children who, at earlier ages, had been identified as extremely wary and socially inhibited. In our longitudinal program of research we have found that the pattern of brain electrical activity (EEG), recorded over the anterior frontal lobes, represents a marker of individual differences in the tendency to express and modulate positive and negative emotions. Thus, infants and toddlers who exhibit wariness and behavioral inhibition during the first two years of life, and who display greater negative right frontal EEG activation are more likely to be socially reticent during preschool peer interaction. Furthermore, 4 year social reticence predicts social withdrawal in the peer group at age 7 years. We posit that socially withdrawn 7-year-old children, especially those who display greater relative right frontal asymmetry, will be rejected by peers in later childhood. Moreover, we hypothesize that the friendships of these children, at age 11 years, will be qualitatively inferior and more fragile than those of their non-withdrawn counterparts. And finally, we postulate that physiologically assessed wariness, in combination with impoverished social skills and peer relationships, will predict negative self perceptions of social competence and peer relationships, as well as internalizing problems in early adolescence (11 years). These hypotheses will be examined by bringing the participants in our longitudinal project to the laboratory for three visits at 11 years of age. Session 1 will consist of same-sex quartets, much like the ones in which the children participated at ages 4 and 7 years. Session 2 will consist of a friendship dyad interaction in which the target child will be observed interacting with his/her best friend. Also in Session 2, both the focal child and his/her best friend will participate in a same-sex quartet with two additional unfamiliar children. Session 3 will allow collection of psychophysiological data. As a result of these three sessions, we will be able to describe the friendship and social interactive patterns of both reticent and non-reticent children. We will also be able to characterize the processes through which competent peer interaction develops. %%% The goal of this project is to examine the social skills, social relationships, and self-perceptions of 11-year-old children who, at earlier ages, had been identified as extremely wary and socially inhibited. Earlier research has suggested that adolescent and adult depression, anxiety, and other problems of an `internalizing` nature may be predicted from negative self appraisals and withdrawal from the peer group during childhood. The developmental precursors of negative self appraisals and social withdrawal, however, are by-and-large unknown. In our longitudinal program of research we have found that infants and toddlers who display greater negative right frontal EEG activation tend to be wary and behaviorally inhibited during the first two years of life. This constellation of psychophysiology and behavior predicts extremely wary, socially reticent behavior during preschool peer interaction. And, 4 year social reticence, combined with negative right frontal EEG activation, predicts social withdrawal from the peer group at age 7 years. In the present study, we are predicting that socially withdrawn 7-year-old children, especially those who display greater relative right frontal asymmetry, will, at 11 years, be rejected when they attempt to initiate interactions with their peers. We hypothesize also that the friendships of these children, at age 11 years, will be qualitatively inferior and more fragile than those of their non-withdrawn counterparts. And finally, we posit that physiologically assessed wariness, in combination with impoverished social skills and peer relationships, will predict negative self perceptions of social competence and peer relationships, as well as internalizing problems in early adolescence (11 years). These hypotheses will be examined by bringing the participants in our longitudinal project to the laboratory for three visits at 11 years of age. In these sessions, we will assess the quality of the children's peer relationships, with a special emphasis on the quality and strength/fragility of their relationships with their best friends. We will also assess the children's self-expressed perceptions of their social skills and social relationships, as well as their feelings of anxiety, social wariness, and depression. Finally, we will continue to collect EEG data, given the purported significance of right frontal asymmetries in the prediction of internalizing disorders in childhood and adolescence. As a result of this study, we will be able to document some of the early origins, and some of the early adolescent concomitants of negative thoughts and feelings about the self, social wariness, and other problems of an internalizing nature.

The general objective of the proposed research is to study the nature, quality, functions, and sources of friendship during the transition from elementary school (fifth grade) to middle school (sixth grade), and to relate these aspects of friendship to child and family characteristics and to child socioemotional adjustment. More specifically, the first specific aim of the proposed research is to determine the associations between individual child characteristics such as sex and psychological/behavioral profile (e.g., socially competent, aggressive, or anxious withdrawn children) and (a) the extent to which children have friends; (b) the characteristics of their best friends; (c) the extensivity of their friendship networks; (d) the quality of their best friendships; and (e) the fragility or strength of their best friendships as they make the transition to middle school. The second specific aim is to evaluate the potential influence of family factors on the characteristics of children's best friendships as noted above. Specifically, quantitative and qualitative aspects of friendship will be related to parenting style, and to the quality of the parent-child relationship. The third specific aim is to evaluate the ways in which change or stability in children's friendship may encourage adaptation during the potentially stressful transition to middle school. Two cohorts of 120 children (60 females) will be followed as they make the transition from the fifth to the sixth grade. Classroom assessments will identify each child's best friends in the fifth and sixth grades. Observational data will be collected from yearly videotaped interactions between each child and his/her best friend and with her/his mother. Interview and questionnaire data will be obtained, at each grade level, from each child, mother, and classroom teacher. Social and emotional "assessments" will include friendship quality, conceptions of friendship, social competence, and psychological adaptation. Maladaptive sixth grade outcomes are expected for children who are lacking in best friendships, or whose best friendships are qualitatively poor. For example, those fifth graders who have qualitatively poor friendships, yet whose mothers provide them with supportive parenting experiences, are expected to develop normal friendships in the transition year. For these children, maladaptive outcomes are not expected. Alternatively fifth graders who have qualitatively poor friendships, and whose mothers provide them with unsupportive and harsh parenting experiences, are expected to find friends who serve to exacerbate existing difficulties in the sixth grade. Further interactions between quality of friendship and quality of the parenting experience will be examined insofar as the prediction of adaptive and maladaptive sixth grade "outcomes" are concerned.

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed investigation constitutes an extension of a NIMH-funded longitudinal project (NIH # MH58116), in which the friendships and parent-child relationships of socially withdrawn, aggressive, and control children were examined before and after they made the transition to middle school. The primary purpose of the proposed study is to examine developmental trajectories of socially withdrawn and control children/adolescents from the first to the last year of middle school (6th to 8th grade) and across the transition into the first year of high school (9th grade), with particular emphasis on the roles of significant relationships in modifying or reinforcing these trajectories. The early adolescent period in general and, in particular, the transition to high school is a time of enormous social, emotional, and physical changes for children. The developmental risks and potential protective factors of this period are likely to be more intense, complex, and carry more serious consequences than the earlier period being studied in our current project. The extension of our study to 9th grade will allow us to examine the cumulative effects of social withdrawal, as well as tracking potential developmental trajectories, that would be impossible to test with our current data. [unreadable] [unreadable] The first specific aim is to evaluate differences between control and withdrawn children in the nature and quality of their relationships with best friends and parents in 6th, 8th, and 9th grades. The second specific aim is to determine how behavioral characteristics in each grade (6th, 8th, 9th) are related to adjustment outcomes, and how these associations are moderated by the nature and quality of relationships with best friends and parents. "Outcomes" include internalizing and externalizing problems or the lack thereof as well as self-perceptions of competence in various domains. The third specific aim is to assess the stability over time (grades 6, 8, 9) of (a) behavioral characteristics (e.g., social withdrawal) and (b) the nature and quality of relationships with best friends and parents. Finally the fourth specific aim is to evaluate the ways in which relationships with best friends and parents shape adjustment over time, and how these pathways differ as a function of behavioral status (withdrawal versus control). [unreadable] [unreadable]

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Behavioral inhibition is one of the most stable characteristics reported in childhood. Early behavioral inhibition, along with anxiety and social wariness (BI-ANX), is often reinforced and exacerbated by children?s reciprocal interactions with parents across development. Importantly, stable BI/ANX places young children at subsequent risk for diagnosable anxiety disorders (namely, social phobia) during adolescence and adulthood. The proposed project aims to develop and evaluate a novel early intervention program that is grounded in developmental psychopathology research insofar as it targets the specific risk factors implicated in the development and persistence of shyness, social reticence, and withdrawal in children to facilitate adaptive developmental outcomes (i.e., the absence of social phobia). This proposal meets the objectives of Stage I of the NIMH R34 ?From Intervention Development to Services: Exploratory Research Grants? (PAR-06-248). The primary aim of Phase I is to develop a developmentally-grounded, multi-component early intervention program for BI/ANX preschoolers and their parents. The aims of Phase II are to refine and evaluate our early intervention program compared to a waitlist control condition on outcomes including child behavioral inhibition and parenting, using a multi-method assessment consisting of parent and teacher reports and observational data. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Behavioral inhibition (BI), along with its associated characteristics of social reticence and withdrawal, is one of the most stable individual characteristics reported in childhood. Socially inhibited, wary and withdrawn preschool children are at risk for subsequent diagnosable anxiety and depressive disorders during adolescence and adulthood. Given the serious developmental outcomes associated with adolescent anxiety, very early identification and prevention of early social inhibition represents a major public health agenda.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Behavioral inhibition/social reticence (BI/RET) is one of the most stable dispositional characteristics reported in childhood. Early BI/RET is often reinforced and exacerbated by children's reciprocal interactions with parents across development. Importantly, stable BI/RET places young children at subsequent risk for diagnosable anxiety disorders (namely, social phobia) during adolescence and adulthood and this risk is moderated by (a) overly directive/controlling parenting and (b) the child' lack of socal and emotion-regulation skills. The purpose of the proposed project is to conduct and evaluate a full-scale, randomized controlled trial during which we will randomly assign 150 45-60 month old children and their parents to either the Turtle Program (combined adapted Parent Child Interaction Therapy and Social Skills Facilitated Play (PCIT and SSFP) or to a less intensive, 6-session parent psychoeducation group, the best available treatment for preschool BI. The Turtle Program components highlight the development of skills to intervene in the reciprocal cycle of parent-child and peer interactions that contribute to the development of anxiety. Importantly, the group- based nature of SSFP provides a social context in which parents can practice behavioral skills with their child while being coached by the therapists. This trial will examine mediators an moderators of treatment response. Outcome measures (collected at pre-treatment, mid-treatment, post-treatment, and one-year follow-up) will include parent and teacher ratings/questionnaires of child anxiety symptoms/disorders, temperament, and social functioning; observational measures of parenting and children's social behaviors in the classroom; and heart rate physiology (a biological index of emotional reactivity and regulation).