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© 2021. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the "License"). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Background

Behavioral inhibition (BI) is a temperament style characterized by heightened reactivity and negative affect in response to novel people and situations, and it predicts anxiety problems later in life. However, not all BI children develop anxiety problems, and mounting evidence suggests that how one manages their cognitive resources (cognitive control) influences anxiety risk. The present study tests whether more (proactive control) or less (reactive control) planful cognitive strategies moderate relations between early BI and later anxiety.

Methods

Participants included 112 adolescents (55% female; Mage = 15.4 years) whose temperament was assessed during toddlerhood. In adolescence, participants completed an AX Continuous Performance Test while electroencephalography was recorded to disentangle neural activity related to proactive (cue‐locked P3b) and reactive (probe‐locked N2) control.

Results

Greater BI was associated with greater total anxiety scores only among adolescents with smaller ΔP3bs and larger ΔN2s—a pattern consistent with decreased reliance on proactive strategies and increased reliance on reactive strategies. Additionally, a larger ΔP3b was associated with greater total anxiety scores; however, this effect was largely explained by the fact that females tended to have larger ΔP3bs and greater anxiety than males.

Conclusions

Early BI relates to risk for later anxiety specifically among adolescents who rely less on proactive strategies and more on reactive control strategies. Thus, cognitive control strategy moderates the association between developmental context (i.e., temperament) and later anxiety. The present study is the first to characterize how proactive and reactive control uniquely relate to pathways toward anxiety risk.

Details

Title
Behavioral inhibition and dual mechanisms of anxiety risk: Disentangling neural correlates of proactive and reactive control
Author
Valadez, Emilio A. 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Troller‐Renfree, Sonya V. 2 ; Buzzell, George A. 3 ; Henderson, Heather A. 4 ; Chronis‐Tuscano, Andrea 5 ; Pine, Daniel S. 6 ; Fox, Nathan A. 1 

 Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA 
 Department of Biobehavioral Sciences, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA 
 Department of Psychology, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA 
 Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada 
 Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA 
 Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA 
Section
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Publication year
2021
Publication date
Jul 1, 2021
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
ISSN
26929384
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3090611175
Copyright
© 2021. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the "License"). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.