Sensitivity to social and non‐social threats in temperamentally shy children at‐risk for anxiety |
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Authors: | Vanessa LoBue Koraly Pérez‐Edgar |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, , USA;2. Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, , USA |
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Abstract: | In the current brief report, we examined threat perception in a group of young children who may be at‐risk for anxiety due to extreme temperamental shyness. Results demonstrate specific differences in the processing of social threats: 4‐ to 7‐year‐olds in the high‐shy group demonstrated a greater bias for social threats (angry faces) than did a comparison group of low‐shy children. This pattern did not hold for non‐social threats like snakes: Both groups showed an equal bias for the detection of snakes over frogs. The results suggest that children who are tempermentally shy have a heightened sensitivity to social signs of threat early in development. These findings have implications for understanding mechanisms of early threat sensitivity that may predict later socioemotional maladjustment. |
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