title: Dominance as part of self-concept mediates the intergenerational transmission of social anxiety among adolescents under residential care.
abstract: According to Rapee (1997), maternal social anxiety (SA) is directly associated with adolescent SA because maternal SA causes overprotective and controlling parental behavior. A total of 127 adolescents who were in the process of transitioning to a boarding school for at-risk youth as well as their mothers participated in the current study, 30% of the adolescents had experienced at least one depressive episode; 17.5% had been diagnosed with SA. We analyzed an expanding model of mediation, of maternal SA and depression in which specifically, adolescent self-perception was constructed as a latent factor that was formed by self-reported dominance and self-criticism. The results supported our hypotheses that maternal SA is not directly associated with adolescent SA. Rather, these relationships are mediated by adolescents' self-perception (i.e., dominance and self-criticism). The results call into question Rapee's theoretical arguments and support Gilbert's evolutionary theory.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department and the Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel. Electronic address: roitmany@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Yaakov
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Roitman
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department and the Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gilboa-Schechtman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D004291:Dominance-Subordination; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012574:Schools; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: At-risk adolescents; Depression; Dominance; Maternal psychopathology; Self-perception; Social anxiety