Displays of negative facial affect during parent–adolescent conflict and the bidirectional transmission of social anxiety

Background Symptoms of social anxiety rise rapidly during adolescence, particularly for girls. Pervasive displays of parental negative affect may increase adolescents' fear of negative evaluation (FNE), thereby increasing risk for social anxiety symptoms. Adolescent displays of negative affect may also exacerbate parents' social anxiety symptoms (via FNE of their child or their parenting skills), yet little research has tested transactional pathways of transmission in families. By early adolescence, rates of parent–child conflict rise, and offspring become increasingly independent in their own displays of negative affect, increasing opportunities for hypothesized transactional pathways between parent–adolescent displays of negative affect and social anxiety symptoms. Methods This study included 129 parents and daughters (11–13; no baseline social anxiety disorder), two‐thirds of whom were at high risk for social anxiety due to a shy/fearful temperament. We used actor–partner interdependence models (APIM) to test whether displays of negative facial affect, assessed individually for each parent and daughter during a conflict discussion, would predict their partner's social anxiety symptoms two years later. Automated facial affect coding assessed the frequency of negative affect during the discussion. Clinician ratings of social anxiety symptoms were completed at baseline and two‐year follow‐up. Results Both parents and daughters who displayed more frequent negative facial affect at baseline had partners with higher follow‐up social anxiety symptoms, an effect that was maintained after accounting for actors' and partners' baseline symptoms. Conclusions Findings are consistent with intergenerational models positing that parental negative affective behaviors increase risk for adolescent social anxiety symptoms but also suggest that adolescent negative facial affect may exacerbate parental social anxiety symptoms. These bidirectional effects improve understanding of how social anxiety is maintained within a transactional family structure and highlight that displays of negative affect during parent–adolescent interaction may warrant future examination as a potential treatment target for adolescent social anxiety.