Doctoral Dissertations
Date of Award
8-2025
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Major
Psychology
Major Professor
Kristy Benoit Allen
Committee Members
Jennifer Bolden Bush, Jeremy Kanter, Doug Coatsworth
Abstract
Females are at risk of developing social anxiety disorder, a disorder that is linked to significant distress and long-term impairment. Parental warmth and control are often discussed as environmental contributors to the development of social anxiety in adolescents. Parental language, however, has received less attention, despite a significant body of evidence linking language to fear acquisition in humans. Therefore, the current study aimed to examine the impact of maternal threat- and vulnerability-promoting statements on adolescent social anxiety symptoms across three timepoints. Participants were 123 mother-daughter dyads (two-thirds of daughters were at high risk for developing social anxiety disorder and/or depression) who completed a speech preparation task at two timepoints, as well as questionnaires regarding their level of social anxiety symptoms at three timepoints. With the exception of adolescent vulnerability-promoting language, all language variables were highly zero-inflated, impacting the analyses utilizing these variables. Results suggest that, while maternal vulnerability-promoting language remained stable over time, neither maternal threat- nor vulnerability-promoting language significantly predicted social anxiety symptoms. Rather, adolescent self-reported social anxiety symptoms was the most robust predictor of future adolescent social anxiety symptoms. This study suggests that non-clinically anxious mothers may use a low frequency of vulnerability- and threat-promoting language, and/or use problem-solving strategies to help their adolescent cope with social stressors. Directions for future work utilizing parental language as a construct in relation to adolescent anxiety are discussed.
Recommended Citation
Hunter, Hannah Lynn, "The Language of Fear: Investigating Bidirectional Relationships Between Maternal and Adolescent Social Fear-Based Language and Subsequent Adolescent Anxiety. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2025.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/12722