Social and neural moderators of the temperament-anxiety association: risk or protective factors?

Project Information

Temperament-Anxiety

Grant agreement ID: 101026595

DOI

10.3030/101026595

Project closed

EC signature date 31 March 2021

Start date 17 May 2021

End date 30 June 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 187 572,48

EU contribution

€ 187 572,48

Coordinated by

ERASMUS UNIVERSITEIT ROTTERDAM
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Temperament-Anxiety (Social and neural moderators of the temperament-anxiety association: risk or protective factors?)

Reporting period: 2021-05-17 to 2023-05-16

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Anxiety in youth is on the rise worldwide and has severe consequences. Children with a fearful early-life temperament, so who are very inhibited and anxious, have an increased risk for developing an anxiety disorder. However, not all children with a fearful temperament will eventually develop a disorder. This Fellowship investigate social and neural factors that increased the risk for anxiety in children with fearful temperament. This was studied in the Generation R cohort study in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. This unique study started with 9749 at birth, and these children were followed until they were around 13 years. Data on temperament and anxiety was available for 2730 children. I found that children with a fearful temperament, who also show negative responses after being excluded, show more anxiety symptoms at age 13. Neural factors as measured at rest were not related to temperament and anxiety. These findings suggest that research on (preventive) interventions for anxiety should focus on dealing with social rejection. Eventually, this is important to reduce problematic anxiety symptoms in children with a fearful temperament. These findings have been shared by the scientific community through presentations and open-access scientific papers. Moreover, I have also shared my research with clinicians, teachers, and children. I have develop an online lesson series for elementary school students about mental health and the brain (www.inmijnhoofd.nl) on my research during the Fellowship.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

To start, I replicated the association between early childhood fearful temperament and adolescent anxiety symptoms in a unique prospective cohort study, the Generation R Study. My findings showed that children with higher parent-reported, but not observed, fearful temperament showed more anxiety symptoms as adolescents. This association was not moderated by sex, so it was similar for boys and for girls. Moreover, I found that negative feelings after social exclusion moderated the temperament-anxiety association: the temperament-anxiety association was stronger in adolescents who reported more negative feelings after social exclusion. Avoidance of angry faces did not moderate the temperament-anxiety association.
• Four distinct peer interaction variables as moderators of the fearful temperament-anxiety association, using data from the Generation R Study. JCPP Advances, e12254. doi: 10.1002/jcv2.12254
• Avoidance of angry faces as moderator of the temperament-anxiety association, using data from the Generation R Study. doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/3RGHC (pre registration, paper in preparation).

For WP2, I studied how resting-state functional connectivity in the brain moderates the association between early childhood temperament and later anxiety symptoms. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure brain functional connectivity while participants were in the MRI scanner for 10 minutes doing nothing with their eyes closed (“resting state”). My findings showed that whole-brain and within-network functional connectivity measures were not related to anxiety and did not significantly moderate the temperament-anxiety association.
The results were/will be published:
• Resting state functional connectivity as potential moderator of the fearful temperament-anxiety association, using data from the Generation R Study (in preparation)
• Structural brain correlates of childhood inhibited temperament: An ENIGMA-Anxiety mega-analysis. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 61, 1182-1188. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2022.04.023

Since the neural factors were not significantly related to anxiety and did not moderate the temperament-anxiety association, I worked on an additional project focusing on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. My findings showed that anxiety symptoms remained relatively stable during the pandemic. Pre-pandemic friendship quality was related to increased anxiety. Moreover, adolescents who reported more shyness and worse family functioning also reported more anxiety during the pandemic.
The results were and or will be published:
• Pre-pandemic predictors of anxiety symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic: data from the prospective Generation R Study (submitted).
• A comprehensive network analysis of psychological distress among Dutch adolescents during the COVID-19 lockdown (submitted).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

My research has expanded to include social and protective factors, longitudinal resting-state fMRI analysis, and epidemiological methods.
b. This provided more opportunities for collaborations, for example, I was asked to be part of the national “Growing Up Together in Society” (GUTS) consortium to lead a longitudinal EEG study.

2. Transferable skills
a. Having experience with the longitudinal cohort study Generation R shows my independence and capabilities, which will make it easier to set up longitudinal studies. I have already started this as part of the GUTS consortium.
b. I have also gained experience with project management skills, which is really necessary in a cohort study that started with 9749 children.
c. My network has also expanded during my Fellowship, as shown by co-authorships on 2 other Generation R papers. Additionally, I became board member of the Dutch Society for Developmental Psychology.

3. Connection with clinical practice
a. I’m setting up long-term collaborations with clinical practice, involving clinicians already when I’m thinking about new research questions and designing new studies.

4. Outreach activities
I have made my outreach activities more professional, by obtaining funding, by developing an online lesson series, by positioning myself as the contact person for outreach activities in our department, and by collaborating with important partners at the EUR (e.g. Society, Youth, Neuroscience, Connected Lab, the “Science Hub”, and the EUR Studio). This will make me more successful in my long-term career as it increases my chances for more collaborations and funding.
a. I have developed a free online lesson series about mental health and the brain for elementary school students, based on my research (www.inmijnhoofd.nl). For this project, I collaborated with teachers, elementary school students, colleagues, the “Science Hub” at Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), and the EUR Studio. I received a Healthy Start-ers Fund and a grant from the department for this project.
b. I learned from hands-on training from Prof. Crone and her “Society Youth Neuroscience Connected” lab and organized brainstorm sessions about my research with teachers and elementary school students.
c. I collaborated with the “Science Hub” from EUR and taught several lectures to elementary and high school students.