Childhood Shyness Predicts Adult Anxiety

It is quite unusual to see children diagnosed with anxiety disorder before growing adult. Small kids rarely have an understanding of what is good and what is bad and thus, they take nothing to their heart. But, at times, they may have the temperament, which can induce them to become anxious. A behaviorally inhibited baby when exposed to new sensory information, which can be something as benevolent as mobiles put over child’s crib or a jack inside the box. A normal baby laughs and giggle at these activities, but babies who are gets terrifies. These are the early symptoms of becoming anxious in adulthood. Later predictors may include difficulty building relationships and in socializing with peers.

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is a terms used for several disorders that causes a feeling of worry and nervousness. When anxiety develops distress in an adolescent, adult or a child, it may lead to dysfunction in daily life and is considered as a disorder. Anxiety Disorders are most common among adults, but researches have shown that teens are more likely to be exposed to anxiety owing to several reasons, childhood shyness being the most common among them. People who are shy since childhood have greater probabilities of developing anxiety in adulthood, according to researches.

Childhood shyness and anxiety in adults

Koraly Pérez-Edga, a developmental psychologist began studying social interactions of children since she was serving as postdoctoral fellow. Koraly observed that kids displaying extreme shyness are more likely to face anxiety in adulthood than the normal kids. This level of shyness may even develop a deep moment of anxiety as and when the child meets a new face. But, a child who moves furtively with a view to avoiding other children flaunts sign of severe inhibition.

Childhood Shyness - does it really matter?

Pérez-Edgar considered previous researches and found that that extreme shyness is a kind of behavioral inhibition, which is not limited to nervousness every time you try something new. The personality of a child with behavioral inhibition becomes visible even during infancy and comprises a continuing trepidation of new stimulus.

Kids with behavioral inhibition are not only shy, but also display a temperamental quality, which remains stable throughout the life and predicts adult fearfulness.

Make children open up

Behaviorally inhibited kids limit their approach towards others and give themselves very less opportunity to open and take part in social interaction. This sort of behavior deteriorates the situation. As a result, Pérez-Edgar is not sure whether this kind of behavior is inborn trait, which appears since childhood or learned temperament that children often practice.

Pérez-Edgar, by studying the research deeply, aspires to assist shy children to get over the inhibitions in an attempt to reduce the chances of adult anxiety. Pérez-Edgar along with her colleagues is endeavoring to ease anxieties in children with the use of behavioral therapy. She tries to shift children’s focus towards other activities so that they can gradually forget the fear and begin to open up and participate in different activities. Though the success of this approach is not confirm, but if this will work, it would become easy to determine how early shyness relates to adult anxiety.