UMaine Partners with Maine Hospitals for Study of Shy Children
Contact: Marie Hayes, (207) 581-2039, George Manlove, (207) 581-3756
ORONO — Psychology researchers at the University of Maine and at three Maine hospitals, in Bangor, Waterville and Portland, are looking for shy children to participate in a research project they hope will improve treatment for children at risk for developing severe social anxiety as adults.
Psychology professor Marie Hayes and Ph.D. student Bethany Sallinen at the University of Maine began the study last year, but say they are in need of more shy children to volunteer. They have partnered with Dr. Doug Robbins at Maine Medical Center’s Department of Child and Adolescent Psychology in Portland, as well as providers at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor and MaineGeneral in Waterville to expand the pool of study subjects.
Children, either shy or typical in their social behavior, ages eight to 12 years old, are being sought to volunteer with a parent for the study.
Incentives for participating include low cost therapy for qualifying children, under the supervision of a licensed, clinical psychologist at UMaine, and having a role in research that can reduce the number of children whose lives may be compromised by a treatable anxiety problem. Parents will receive a small financial stipend and children will receive a small gift.
The research could break new ground in identifying how to treat extremely shy children. By examining the details of parent-child interactions that may promote social anxiety, researchers hope to provide insight into parenting strategies that could improve success rates in families working to overcome shyness issues.
Studies show that about 15 percent of children are shy and about 5 percent are extremely so. A National Co-Morbidity Survey revealed a lifetime prevalence of social phobia of 13.3 percent, making it the third most prevalent psychiatric disorder. Extreme shyness can have severe effects on an individual’s social, and later in life, professional development, according to Hayes and Sallinen.
“It seems to be that children who are extremely shy or ‘socially anxious’ have difficulty in school going to the board, speaking in class, participating in gym class and making friends,” Sallinen says. “Shyness interferes with their everyday functioning. They’re less likely to achieve if they are untreated.”
Later in life, they look for jobs where they can avoid speaking or expressing themselves, she says. Over time, a lack of achievement and self-confidence can lead to depression because of loneliness and low self-esteem. Early recognition and counseling can turn a child’s life around, she says.
The testing Hayes and Sallinen propose to do involves less than two hours of time during a one-time video-taped interview. Interviews and testing are done at the university’s Child Studies Laboratory on the Orono campus.
By monitoring parent and child interaction with problem-solving tasks as well as free play time in a controlled environment, the researchers want to observe what behavior similarities exist in parents and children when facing both challenging, stressful situations — generated through problem-solving exercises — and spontaneous play, according to Hayes.
“The dynamics between the parent and the child sets the stage for the child’s reactions outside the home,” Hayes says. “If the parent is also experiencing significant social anxiety, this could be the social scenario in which the child learns to mimic similar behavior, or does not learn appropriate interpersonal l behavior strategies.”
Also, if a parent can pass specific personality traits to children genetically, then knowing about a predisposition for behavior that could interfere with a child’s developing socialization skills could help families, teachers or counselors work with that child to minimize the affects, according to Hayes. Future research will examine the genetic basis of personality traits like social anxiety which may be present in the parents of shy children.
Using a simple saliva sample, researchers can look for DNA “markers,” or genetic traits indicating a propensity toward anxiety, including social anxiety, that might be present in both child and parent. DNA testing would be done at no cost to the families by the Human Genetics Laboratory in Portland, an affiliate of Maine Medical Center.
For information about volunteering, Dr. Hayes can be reached at (207) 581-2039 or by email at mhayes@maine.edu.