The Influence of Temperament, Theory of Mind, Inhibitory Control, and Prosocial Behavior on Child Anxiety Symptoms in the First Five Years of Life.

Abstract

Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent of all mental health disorders, often originating in early childhood and extending into later childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Determining salient risk factors that precede their development is important for prevention and intervention efforts. Towards this end, we examined the role of temperament, theory of mind, inhibitory control, and prosocial behavior on child anxiety symptoms in the first 5 years of life. A community sample of children and their parents (N = 399) enrolled in a longitudinal study of emotion processing were assessed when the children were infants and at ages 2 years, 3 years, and 5 years. Linear mixed models and linear regression models revealed that greater anxiety at 5 years was associated with greater negative affectivity and behavioral inhibition, lower effortful control, lower theory of mind scores on the "desires" domain, and higher scores on the "intentions" domain (assessed from infancy to 3 years of age). These characteristics may be useful to assess in clinical settings to evaluate a patient's risk for developing anxiety. They may also be useful in developing interventions targeting specific vulnerabilities.