The purpose of the proposed research is to continue a longitudinal investigation of two independent cohorts of children who had been selected at either 21 or 31 months to be extreme for display of either inhibited or uninhibited behavior to the unfamiliar. In the first part of the research the children in the two cohorts will be seen at seven-and-a-half years of age. The children will be observed in a school setting, as well as in a laboratory context, to evaluate the degree to which the behaviors indicative of the two categories and the physiological signs of sympathetic arousal have been preserved since the last evaluations. The research will also determine if inhibited and uninhibited children show differential attention to figures symbolic of their personal style. It will also evaluate the degree of similarity between each parent and child on physiological variables that include perturbation of the voice, pupillary dilation, and heart rate gathered prior to, during, and after mild cognitive stress. A second study will evaluate the behavioral and physiological profiles of a group of four-year-old children who had been seen at 14 and 20 months, but who were unselected for inhibition and lack of inhibition. The profile of this group will be compared with that provided by children in the first study who had been selected to belong to the two extreme categories. A final study will test the hypothesis that extreme constipation, irritability, sleeplessness, and allergies in the first six months of life are predictive of inhibition, and their absence predictive of lack of inhibition, when the children are 21 months of age. The research should provide significant information for psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals concerned with the etiology of phobias in children as well as panic reactions in adults.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH040619-03
Application #
3378887
Study Section
Cognition, Emotion, and Personality Research Review Committee (CEP)
Project Start
1985-09-15
Project End
1988-08-31
Budget Start
1987-09-01
Budget End
1988-08-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
1987
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Harvard University
Department
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
071723621
City
Cambridge
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02138
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Biederman, J; Rosenbaum, J F; Hirshfeld, D R et al. (1990) Psychiatric correlates of behavioral inhibition in young children of parents with and without psychiatric disorders. Arch Gen Psychiatry 47:21-6
Kagan, J (1988) The meanings of personality predicates. Am Psychol 43:614-20
Rosenbaum, J F; Biederman, J; Gersten, M et al. (1988) Behavioral inhibition in children of parents with panic disorder and agoraphobia. A controlled study. Arch Gen Psychiatry 45:463-70
Kagan, J; Reznick, J S; Snidman, N et al. (1988) Childhood derivatives of inhibition and lack of inhibition to the unfamiliar. Child Dev 59:1580-9
Rosenberg, A; Kagan, J (1987) Iris pigmentation and behavioral inhibition. Dev Psychobiol 20:377-92