The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

A twin study of anxiety-related behaviours in pre-school children

På svenska

Author

  • Thalia C. Eley
  • Derek Bolton
  • Thomas G. O'Connor
  • Sean Perrin
  • Patrick Smith
  • Robert Plomin

Summary, in English

Background: From middle childhood onwards, substantial evidence points to phenotypic differentiation between anxiety diagnostic categories such as generalised anxiety, separation anxiety, specific phobia, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. However, little is known about the genetics of these categories and especially about the phenotypic and genetic structure of related behaviours in pre-school children. Methods: We examined the phenotypic differentiation and genetics of mother-reported anxiety-related behaviours in 4,564 four-year-old twin pairs, from a population-based sample. Results: Confirmatory factor analyses provided support for five correlated factors: General Distress, Separation Anxiety, Fears, Obsessive-Compulsive Behaviours, and Shyness/Inhibition. Genetic influences were found on all five factors, but the pattern of influences differed considerably across them, with particularly high heritability estimates for Obsessive-Compulsive Behaviours and Shyness/Inhibition, and substantial shared environmental influence on Separation Anxiety. Multivariate genetic analyses revealed moderate genetic correlations between the five factors. Genetic overlap was particularly pronounced between General Distress and the other anxiety-related behaviours, accounting for about half of their covariance. Genetic variance on Obsessive-Compulsive Behaviours was the least correlated with the other scales. The shared environmental influences correlated highly across the factors, accounting for the greatest proportion of covariation between Separation Anxiety, Fears and Obsessive-Compulsive Behaviours. The non-shared environment influences were largely variable specific. Conclusions: These data provide evidence for phenotypic and genetic overlap as well as differentiation between aspects of anxiety-related behaviours in young children. We conclude that research with young children will benefit from more specific assessments of anxiety-related behaviours in addition to less differentiated assessments of 'internalising' symptoms.

Publishing year

2003-10-01

Language

English

Pages

945-960

Publication/Series

Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines

Volume

44

Issue

7

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Psychology

Keywords

  • Anxiety
  • Anxiety disorders
  • Behavioural inhibition
  • Children
  • Genetics
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder
  • Pre-schoolers
  • Twins
  • anxiety disorder
  • article
  • behavior genetics
  • child behavior
  • controlled study
  • correlation analysis
  • covariance
  • diagnostic value
  • distress syndrome
  • environmental factor
  • fear
  • female
  • genetic analysis
  • genetic variability
  • heredity
  • human
  • major clinical study
  • male
  • medical assessment
  • multivariate analysis
  • obsessive compulsive disorder
  • phenotype
  • population research
  • preschool child
  • separation anxiety
  • social behavior
  • symptom
  • twins

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0021-9630