Factors Impacting the Child with Behavioral Inhibition.

Various factors influence the developmental course of the behaviorally inhibited child. These factors include reciprocating, contextual factors, such as the child’s own traits, the environment, the maternal characteristics, and the environment. Behaviorally inhibited children show physiological and behavioral signs of fear and anxiety when introduced to unfamiliar persons and situations. Their own behavior seems to elicit negative reactions from others. They often go on to develop internalizing problems, such as depression, anxiety and low self-esteem. Mothers of behaviorally inhibited children typically exhibit anxious, overprotective and critical child rearing. They often have histories of depression, anxiety and insecure attachment relationships. These maternal characteristics exacerbate the child’s negativity, anxiety, and sense of powerlessness over his own environment. Environmental stressors, including an absence of social support and poverty can affect the child directly and/or indirectly. This paper discusses the variables that impact the behaviorally inhibited child and provides some suggestions for remediation. Factors Impacting the Child with Behavioral Inhibition The temperamental characteristic of behavioral inhibition has been a subject of great interest to researchers in recent years. Infants who show physiological signs of extreme arousability and negativity are often later classified as behaviorally inhibited in later years (Rothbart, 2004). These children are usually very shy and withdrawn and may later suffer from anxiety and depression (Kimberly, 2010). Behavioral inhibition and anxiety are overlapping, but not identical constructs (Fox, 2001). In this paper, the child’s anxiety will be viewed as both a risk factor and a descriptor of behavioral inhibition. Other risk factors that influence the behaviorally inhibited child can be viewed in terms of Belsky’s ecological model of parenting. This model asserts that there are three interacting factors which impact parenting: the child, the environment and the characteristics of the mother (Belsky, 1984). A particular type of child elicits a certain type of care (Rubin, 1989). The child’s own perceptions of those people and situations in his environment seem more important than the actual environment. The environment is a backdrop containing both stressors and buffers. Stressors can also be bidirectional; a distressed person may be impacted by stressors and may cause of stress, as well (Liu, 2010). Lastly, the most important factor is the sum total of all maternal characteristics (van Bakel, 2010). This paper will discuss the behaviorally inhibited child’s risk/protective factors, including the child’s own traits, the environment, and the mother’s characteristics. The concept of temperament has evolved since its inception. Many of today’s researchers study organized physiological and behavioral systems rather than individual traits to define temperament. This paper will use Mary Rothbart’s definition of temperament, which describes temperament as ―individual differences in reactivity—that is, the propensity towards Forum on Public Policy 2 emotional attention and motor responses to stimulation – and in self-regulation, that is, the propensity towards behaviors such as motor approach/avoidance and attentional orienting that act to increase, maintain, or decrease reactivity‖ (Rothbart, 1988, p. 1241). Rothbart’s model assumes that psychobiological forces impact temperamental differences. In Rothbart’s model, there are three main dimensions to temperament: negative affect, surgency (social orientation), and effortful control. Negative affect and surgency are classified as part of the reactivity processes. Reactivity includes ―emotional reactivity [frequency and intensity of positive and negative emotions], attentional, and motoric responses to stimuli‖ (Calkins, 1992, p.1458). These processes exhibit themselves as physiological and/or behavioral arousability. The regulatory aspects of behavior are associated with emotion regulation. Regulation includes attentional control, attentional shifting, and the abilities to activate or inhibit behavior as needed (Eisenberg, 1998). The concept of behavioral inhibition (BI) has also taken on a variety of definitions. Peers of behaviorally inhibited children describe their inhibited classmates as fearful and anxious (Fox, et al, 2001). Professionals have used descriptors such as shy vs. social, cautious vs. bold, and sensitive vs. adaptable (Kagan, 1984). Inhibition suggests an approach-avoidance conflict, as the BI child may want to approach, but this desire may be inhibited. This motivational state is differentiated from the regulated shyness valued in Confucian cultures such as Mainland China (Xu, 2009). Regulated shyness implies emotional control and an ability to act in a reserved manner to facilitate group harmony (Xu, 2009). This paper will adopt Jerome Kagan’s definition of behavioral inhibition, which describes behaviorally inhibited (BI) children as ―consistently shy and affectively restrained‖ (Kagan, 1988, p. 668). For the purposes of this paper, this will imply a fear of being negatively evaluated by others (Eisenberg, 1998). Behavioral inhibition has been measured by assessing physiological processes, including heart patterns, cortisol levels, and amygdale activity on fMRIs. Methods of psychological measurement include child, teacher and parent questionnaires and/or home and/or laboratory observations. In Mary Rothbart’s initial studies she assesses the behavioral inhibition of infants at various stages of infancy by measuring how much time it took the child to respond to novel toys. In her initial research, she found that an infant who was reticent to respond to the unfamiliar at 6 months would also be reticent to respond at 12 months. She also discovered that the heart rates of such infants were higher than those of uninhibited infants (Rothbart, 1994). However, it has been noted that in later years, the tendency to remain classified as either uninhibited or inhibited occurs most often when children are on extreme ends of the spectrum (Arcus, 2001). Since BI has a physiological basis, it seems logical that this characteristic would extend into later years. However, since physiology also changes in response to maturation and experience, this is not always the case (Rothbart, 1997). Garcia found that BI children at twentyone months did not necessarily continue to exhibit behavioral inhibition later on. He also noted that it is more common for behaviorally inhibited children to become uninhibited than the other way around (Garcia, 1984). In general, there is more consistency in behavioral inhibition from Forum on Public Policy 3 the toddler years to age five (Eisenberg, 1998). As children move into the middle childhood phase, their ability to regulate emotions and use display rules increases. Another confounding variable is that the differences in BI children’s heart rates are subtler as they age (Arcus, 2002). Thus there is less information on interindividual consistency in the school years (Eisenberg, 1998). Child Characteristics Behaviorally, inhibited children may show a latency to approach the unfamiliar, lack of speech, laughter, eye contact, negative emotionality and a reticence to leave the caregiver to explore. They usually exhibit avoidant coping styles (Eisenberg, 1998) and have attentional biases for threat (De Pauw, 2010). They also exhibit internalizing problems, low selfesteem, and lowered academic performance and poor social skills. In the presence of an unfamiliar peer, the BI child might regress to less mature forms of play (Kimberly, 2010). From a physiological standpoint, behaviorally inhibited infants are ―unresponsive, [with] motor immaturity, and problems with physiological regulation‖ (Crockenberg, 1981,p. 54). Kagan and Sniderman also found high arousability in infants later classified as behaviorally inhibited. In their seminal study, Kagan and Sniderman followed a group of infants four months old into their second year and classified 20% of these children as inhibited and 40% as uninhibited. Those in the inhibited group were found to have high and stable heart rates and high activity levels (Kagan and Sniderman, 1991). Other researchers also correlated BI with high activity levels, but only when accompanied by negative emotionality (Calkins, 1996; Putnam, 2005; Eisenberg, 1998). Calkins noted that active infants with negative affect showed behavioral inhibition at nine months and had inhibited behavior at fourteen months (Calkins, 1996). Anxiety is another key feature of the behaviorally inhibited child. Anxiety disorders in children are common, affecting about 5-17% of children (Cosi, 2001; Otto, 2007). Behavioral inhibition has long been implicated in the development of internalizing problems (Marysko, 2009; Bishop, 2003). These children often experience anxietyrelated somatic symptoms, such as severe constipation, stomach disorders, sleeplessness, enuresis, allergies and asthma (Pauscharat, 2001). Anxiety disorders have been associated with attentional biases. These attentional biases may be over-ridden by the BI child’s high degree of effortful control (De Pauw, 2010). Attentional factors include hypervigilance to threats in the environment, difficulty in disengaging, and purposely focusing attention in locations far from locations of potential threats (Cisler, 2010). Attentional factors can be both protective and risk factors for the BI child. Negativity and depression have been associated with behavioral inhibition (Calkins, 1996; Putnam, 2005; Martin, et al, 1994). Even as infants, these children were found to be irritable in nature (Kagan, 1991). These traits would be distressful to the child and would be tend to prevent him from gaining social approval from peers and others. In fact, such children have been known to experience peer neglect, ostracism and reject