Predicting Adolescent Anxiety Ratings From Infant Behavioral Style in Response to Expectancy Violation

Nearly 15 years after infants participated in an operant conditioning task, contact was once again established with the former participants to determine relations between infant behavior in response to expectancy violation during mobile conjugate reinforcement and reported anxiety ratings during adolescence. Shifting infants from a high-stimulation reinforcement contingency to a low-stimulation contingency violated expectancy during the learning task, which elicited negative reactivity, crying, in a number of infants. Original participants and 1 parent were later asked to complete a behavioral assessment questionnaire. Results were consistent with studies that have established relations between early negative reactivity and later internalizing behavior. Infant negative reactivity and poor environmental regulation together significantly contributed to the prediction of higher ratings on a later anxiety scale. Also, infant fear and crying were related and higher fear predicted higher anxiety. Findings also suggested fear is a distinct negative emotional reaction and even early in development can be differentiated from other negative reactivity styles.