Differential developmental influences on anxiety in adulthood: Behavioral inhibition moderates the dimensions of social involvement predicting anxiety in adulthood

The current 20-year longitudinal study examined whether behavioral inhibition (BI), a temperament identified in late infancy/early childhood, moderates the associations between a) peer connectedness (feelings of closeness, ease, and availability of meaningful social bonds), b) frequency of functional support (how often interpersonal supportive behaviors are received) throughout middle childhood and adolescence, and c) adulthood anxiety. Data from 291 participants were analyzed. Participants were selected during infancy based on their level of reactivity to novel social and nonsocial stimuli, and BI was measured in toddlerhood. Participants completed questionnaires assessing social involvement throughout middle childhood and adolescence, and anxiety in early adulthood. Confirmatory factor analyses extracted factor scores from multiple indicators for peer connectedness, frequency of functional support, and anxiety. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to examine the moderating effects of toddlerhood BI on the association between indices of social involvement and adulthood anxiety. BI moderates the relations between social involvement and adulthood anxiety; higher frequency of functional support in the presence of relatively low BI predicted lower adulthood anxiety (t = -2.49, SE =.010, p = .014). Peer connectedness directly and positively predicted adulthood anxiety (ß = 0.24, p=.016), but, BI did not moderate this association (p = .606), nor was there a main effect of BI on adult anxiety (p = .129). Complex relations manifest among toddlerhood BI, social involvement across development, and anxiety in adulthood. These relations reflect interacting risk and protective factors operating in a developmental context. Implications of these findings are discussed.