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Child / Adolescent - Anxiety

Just like me: Mothers perceptions of social anxiety in their adolescent offspring as a function of maternal shyness mindset and maternal social anxiety

(PS9-C74) Just Like Me: Mothers Perceptions of Social Anxiety in Their Adolescent Offspring as a Function of Maternal Shyness Mindset and Maternal Social Anxiety

Saturday, November 19, 2022

1:30 PM – 2:30 PM EST

Location: Westside Ballroom, 5th Floor

Author(s)

CM

Cassandra Mick, M.S.

Doctoral Student
Northern Illinois Univesity
DeKalb, Illinois

Co-Author(s)

DV

David Valentiner, Ph.D.

Professor
Northern Illinois Univesity
DeKalb, Illinois
NM

Nina S. Mounts, Ph.D.

Professor
Northern Illinois Univesity
DeKalb, Illinois

Parent and adolescent ratings of adolescent psychopathology are typically quite modest. Differences in parent and adolescent ratings pose considerable challenges to accurate interpretation of empirical findings as well as providing diagnoses and treatment recommendations in clinical practice (De Los Reyes et al., 2011). Social anxiety symptoms, or social phobia symptoms, may be of particular concern. For example, Affrunti and Woodruff-Borden (2015) found that the Pearson’s r correlation between parent and child reports of child social anxiety symptoms was the lowest of the five subtypes of anxiety they examined, falling in the moderate range. One known contributor to parent reports of child symptomology is parental psychopathology. The current study examines factors that contribute to these differences by influencing ratings of adolescent social anxiety made by mothers, but not those made by adolescents. The current study used data from a larger study of 68 mother-adolescents dyads. Adolescents ranged in age from 11 to 14. Measures included questionnaires completed by the mother to assess maternal social anxiety, maternal shyness mindset, and adolescent social anxiety; and a questionnaire completed by the adolescent to assess adolescent social anxiety. We hypothesized that maternal shyness mindset moderates the effect of maternal social anxiety symptoms on mothers’ ratings of their adolescents’ social anxiety symptoms. That is, we expected mothers to rate their adolescents as having social anxiety symptom levels similar to their own, and that this effect would be more pronounce at higher levels of maternal shyness mindset. Consistent with previous work, the correlation between mother-rated and adolescent-rated adolescent social anxiety symptoms in this sample fell in the moderate range (r = .30, p = .02). Two moderation analyses were conducted using the PROCESS macro for SPSS, one controlling for adolescent-rated adolescent social anxiety symptoms and one excluding this variable. The interaction between maternal shyness mindset and maternal social anxiety symptoms explained unique variance in mother’s ratings of adolescent social anxiety symptoms (p = .02) and remained significant (p = .01) when controlling for adolescent-rated adolescent social anxiety symptoms (p = .01). Results provide evidence that the combination of higher social anxiety symptoms and a more fixed shyness mindset may play an important role in the way that mothers perceive their adolescents’ social anxiety symptoms. Additional analyses examine the relative importance of this phenomena on parenting behaviors and adolescents outcomes.