Behavioral inhibition in infancy predicts introverted personality in adulthood
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Behavioral inhibition in infancy appeared associated with a reserved, introverted personality in early adulthood, according to results of a prospective longitudinal study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“We know that problems with mental illness start early in life; however, we are not sure exactly how early we can detect these signs,” Daniel S. Pine, MD, chief of the section on development and affective neuroscience at NIMH’s Intramural Research Program, told Healio Psychiatry. “Our results suggest that we can detect signs of risk within the first 2 years of life, as expressed in patterns of early-life temperament. Moreover, we know that early risk factors do not act alone. Rather, they interact with other factors to shape risk in a mutual way, and our results suggest that brain systems devoted to the rapid monitoring of errors represent one such factor that interacts with early-life temperament.”
According to Pine and colleagues, research has shown that behavioral inhibition influences childhood social and emotional functioning. Inhibited children are known to socially withdraw, exhibit difficulties in peer interactions are four to six times more likely to develop anxiety disorders, particularly social anxiety. Because adulthood presents novel challenges, such as achieving financial independence, vocational goals and maintaining multiple social relationships, individuals in this population may experience difficulties regarding psychosocial outcomes related to these areas and beyond. Despite these apparent associations, the rarity and costliness of longer-term longitudinal studies have resulted in sparse research on the life-course sequalae of children who started life with an inhibited temperament.
To address this research gap, Pine and colleagues followed a cohort of 165 infants for 3 decades to determine whether infant behavioral inhibition shaped long-term personality, vocational/educational, social relationships and mental health outcomes in adulthood. They assessed behavioral inhibition at age 14 months using an observation paradigm; error monitoring event-related potentials in adolescence (n = 115) in a flanker task; and personality, psychopathology and sociodemographic data in adulthood (n = 109) using self-reported questionnaires.
Results showed infants with higher levels of behavioral inhibition at 14 months were more likely to become reserved and introverted adults (beta = 0.34) with lower social functioning with friends and family (beta = 0.23) at age 26. Further, infant behavioral inhibition appeared to be a specific risk factor for adult internalizing (ie, anxiety and depression; beta = 0.2) psychopathology, rather than a transdiagnostic risk for externalizing and general psychopathology.
The researchers suggested that neurophysiological markers such as error-related negativity may help identify those most at risk for developing internalizing psychopathology in adulthood.
“These findings highlight the importance of recognizing early signs of risk for psychopathology,” Pine told Healio Psychiatry. “One such early risk factor involves temperament. Moreover, temperament can be assessed in many ways. The current findings suggest the importance of assessing temperament in many ways, including both direct-observation measures of infant and toddler behaviors, as well as parental ratings of temperament.” – by Joe Gramigna
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.