Linking self-reported childhood behavioral inhibition to adolescent socialphobia

Objective: Behavioral inhibition in children has been hypothesized to be a risk factor for the later development of social phobia. However, this hypot hesis has yet to be demonstrated in a prospective study The purpose of the study presented here is to test whether behavioral inhibition in childhood constitutes a risk factor for social phobia during adolescence. Method: The sample consisted of 2,242 high school students assessed over a 4-year peri od; Assessments included self-report questionnaires, structured clinical in terviews, and measurements of heart rate. Cox proportional hazards models w ere used to evaluate risk. Results: Social avoidance, a component of behavi oral inhibition, predicted onset of social phobia during high school. Howev er,social avoidance was not related to depression in adolescence. Another c omponent of behavioral inhibition, fearfulness, increased the risk for both social phobia and depression. Among subjects who were both socially avoida nt and fearful, 22.3% developed social phobia-a risk more than four times g reater than that for subjects with neither feature of behavioral inhibition . Conclusion: This prospective study demonstrates that behavioral inhibitio n in childhood increases the risk of social phobia in adolescence.