Specificity of peer difficulties to social anxiety in early adolescence: categorical and dimensional analyses with clinical and community samples.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: We investigated the specificity of social difficulties to social anxiety by testing associations of social anxiety and other anxiety presentations with peer acceptance and victimization in community and treatment-seeking samples of adolescents aged 12-14 years. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, quantitative survey. METHODS: Adolescents from the community (n = 116) and a clinical setting (n = 154) completed ratings of anxiety symptoms, perceived social acceptance, and peer victimization. Their parents also completed ratings of the adolescents' anxiety and social acceptance. RESULTS: Social acceptance was lowest among adolescents with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and lower among adolescents with other anxiety disorders than in the community sample. Anxiety symptoms were negatively correlated with social acceptance, but these associations were not unique to social anxiety symptoms. Girls in the community sample reported more overt victimization than girls with SAD and with other anxiety diagnoses. Relational victimization was associated with social and nonsocial anxiety symptoms only in the community sample. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings supplement recent laboratory-based observational studies on social functioning among adolescents with SAD and other anxiety disorders. Although social anxiety may be associated with unique social skill deficits and impairment, concerns about peer relations should also be considered among adolescents with other anxiety symptoms.

Cognitive and psychological functioning in focal dermal hypoplasia.

Focal dermal hypoplasia (FDH) is a condition caused by heterozygous mutation of the PORCN gene on chromosome Xp22.3. It impacts the primitive ectoderm and mesoderm, affecting skin, teeth, nails, hair, musculoskeletal development, and vision and hearing. To date, there has been no systematic research examining the psychoeducational impact of the disorder. The current study examined emotional, behavioral, adaptive, and intellectual ability in 17 subjects with ages ranging from 3 to 55 with FDH attending the 2013 Annual Family Conference of the National Foundation for Ectodermal Dysplasias. Findings suggested overall average functioning in all areas. However, wide variability was noted in this sample, with 3 participants (18%) exhibiting overall cognitive ability in the borderline to impaired range. These findings are consistent with previous reports suggesting intellectual impairment in 15% of persons with FDH. Similarly, a subgroup of children was rated by parents as exhibiting difficulties with behavior (2 out of 11; 18%) and emotions (5 out of 11; 45%). Of particular concern was withdrawn behavior, reported by 65% of parents. These findings suggest that clinicians should routinely screen persons with FDH to rule out cognitive and emotional/behavioral difficulties and offer timely treatment. Future research should focus on identifying risk factors for psychoeducational problems in this population.

Role of adolescent and maternal depressive symptoms on transactional emotion recognition: context and state affect matter.

Depressive symptomatology is associated with impaired recognition of emotion. Previous investigations have predominantly focused on emotion recognition of static facial expressions neglecting the influence of social interaction and critical contextual factors. In the current study, we investigated how youth and maternal symptoms of depression may be associated with emotion recognition biases during familial interactions across distinct contextual settings. Further, we explored if an individual's current emotional state may account for youth and maternal emotion recognition biases. Mother-adolescent dyads (N = 128) completed measures of depressive symptomatology and participated in three family interactions, each designed to elicit distinct emotions. Mothers and youth completed state affect ratings pertaining to self and other at the conclusion of each interaction task. Using multiple regression, depressive symptoms in both mothers and adolescents were associated with biased recognition of both positive affect (i.e., happy, excited) and negative affect (i.e., sadness, anger, frustration); however, this bias emerged primarily in contexts with a less strong emotional signal. Using actor-partner interdependence models, results suggested that youth's own state affect accounted for depression-related biases in their recognition of maternal affect. State affect did not function similarly in explaining depression-related biases for maternal recognition of adolescent emotion. Together these findings suggest a similar negative bias in emotion recognition associated with depressive symptoms in both adolescents and mothers in real-life situations, albeit potentially driven by different mechanisms.

Dysregulated fear predicts social wariness and social anxiety symptoms during kindergarten.

Fearful temperament is associated with risk for the development of social anxiety disorder in childhood; however, not all fearful children become anxious. Identifying maladaptive trajectories is thus important for clarifying which fearful children are at risk. In an unselected sample of 111 two-year-olds (55% male, 95% Caucasian), Buss ( 2011 ) identified a pattern of fearful behavior, dysregulated fear, characterized by high fear in low threat situations. This pattern of behavior predicted parent- and teacher-reported withdrawn/anxious behaviors in preschool and at kindergarten entry. The current study extended original findings and examined whether dysregulated fear predicted observed social wariness with adults and peers, and social anxiety symptoms at age 6. We also examined prosocial adjustment during kindergarten as a moderator of the link between dysregulated fear and social wariness. Consistent with predictions, children with greater dysregulated fear at age 2 were more socially wary of adults and unfamiliar peers in the laboratory, were reported as having more social anxiety symptoms, and were nearly 4 times more likely to manifest social anxiety symptoms than other children with elevated wariness in kindergarten. Results demonstrated stability in the dysregulated fear profile and increased risk for social anxiety symptom development. Dysregulated fear predicted more social wariness with unfamiliar peers only when children became less prosocial during kindergarten. Findings are discussed in relation to the utility of the dysregulated fear construct for specifying maladaptive trajectories of risk for anxiety disorder development.

Social information processing in children: specific relations to anxiety, depression, and affect.

Two studies examined shared and unique relations of social information processing (SIP) to youth's anxious and depressive symptoms. Whether SIP added unique variance over and above trait affect in predicting internalizing symptoms was also examined. In Study 1, 215 youth (ages 8-13) completed symptom measures of anxiety and depression and a vignette-based interview measure of SIP. Anxiety and depression were each related to a more negative information-processing style. Only depression was uniquely related to a less positive information processing style. In Study 2, 127 youth (ages 10-13) completed measures of anxiety, depression, SIP, and trait affect. SIP's relations to internalizing symptoms were replicated. Over and above negative affect, negative SIP predicted both anxiety and depression. Low positive SIP added variance over and above positive affect in predicting only depression. Finally, SIP functioning partially mediated the relations of affect to internalizing symptoms.

Cognitive characteristics of children with mathematics learning disability (MLD) vary as a function of the cutoff criterion used to define MLD.

Researchers of mathematics learning disability (MLD) commonly use cutoff scores to determine which participants have MLD. Some researchers apply more restrictive cutoffs than others (e.g., performance below the 10th vs. below the 35th percentile). Different cutoffs may lead to groups of children that differ in their profile of math and related skills, including reading, visual-spatial, and working memory skills. The present study assesses the characteristics of children with MLD based on varying MLD definitions of math performance either below the 10th percentile (n = 22) or between the 11th and 25th percentile (n = 42) on the Test of Early Math Ability, second edition (TEMA-2). Initial starting levels and growth rates for math and related skills were examined in these two MLD groups relative to a comparison group (n = 146) whose TEMA-2 performance exceeded the 25th percentile. Between kindergarten and third grade, differences emerged in the starting level and growth rate, suggesting qualitative differences among the three groups. Despite some similarities, qualitative group differences were also observed in the profiles of math-related skills across groups. These results highlight differences in student characteristics based on the definition of MLD and illustrate the value of examining skill areas associated with math performance in addition to math performance itself.