The Consistency and Concomitants of Inhibition: Some of the Children, All of the Time

Abstract

Toddlers displaying extremely inhibited behavior may be at risk for becoming socially withdrawn. However, behavioral inhibition may be a multifaceted characteristic, and its concurrent relation to toddler wariness with peers has not been examined. In this study, 108 toddlers (54 females) and their mothers were observed in novel situations involving unfamiliar settings, adults, and peers. Vagal tone, temperament, separation-reunion behavior, and maternal oversolicitousness also were assessed. There was little consistency of inhibited behavior across the 3 situations. Consistently inhibited toddlers had fearful temperaments, showed distress following maternal separation, and had mothers who were warm and controlling but unresponsive to children's cues during interaction. Toddlers with highly fearful temperaments and highly oversolicitous mothers were the most inhibited across contexts.

Social Withdrawal and Shyness

“…During the past decade, investigators have consistently reported linkages between maternal control and overprotectiveness and children ' s social withdrawal, anxiety, and shyness (Bayer, Sanson, & Hemphill, 2006 ;McShane & Hastings, 2009 ). For example, Rubin, Hastings, Stewart, Henderson, and Chen ( 1997 ) found that mothers of temperamentally shy toddlers were " oversolicitous, " that is, they were observed to be highly affectionate and shielding of their toddlers when it was neither appropriate nor sensitive to do so.…”

Who Should Report Abnormal Behavior at Preschool Age? The Case of Behavioral Inhibition

“…The paradigm was adapted based on other versions of the paradigm [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. The final paradigm involved two researchers and lasted around 20 min.…”

“…The clown costumes prevented the children from recognizing the researchers. Clowns or puppets have commonly been used in previous adaptations to enhance the unfamiliar nature of the situation [19,22,[25][26][27][28]. During training, researchers viewed a detailed presentation on the construct (BI) and its behavioral signs.…”

“…If the child does not approach R1 spontaneously after 3 min, he or she is encouraged to do so. This phase lasts for 5 min and includes three important elements of previous adaptations: the play rug e.g., [21], the strange toys used to measure latencies in contacting strange objects and the time spent playing with these objects [e.g., 22,24], and the person in fancy dress [e.g., 19,22,25,27].…”

“…Researchers have adapted the original paradigm in many ways. Some of the adaptations involved different tests and stimuli [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28], whereas others involved observing the child in natural environments such as the classroom, the playground or the child's home [6,20,[29][30][31][32]. Although a naturalistic approach is less standardized and more ecologically valid, it is still quite expensive.…”