Early Childhood Behavioral Inhibition Predicts Altered Social and Emotional Functioning in Early Adulthood: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

Early childhood behavioral inhibition (BI), the tendency to display inhibited behavior in the face of novelty, has been associated with a number of negative outcomes in later childhood and early adolescence. However, few studies have examined young adult outcomes of BI, and none have used intensive assessment methods like ecological momentary assessment to capture both inter- and intraindividual patterns of social and emotional functioning. In the present study, BI at age 3 (2004–2007) was assessed through both behavioral observation in the laboratory and parent-report questionnaire. At age 18 (2019–2023), 330 participants completed an ecological momentary assessment study that involved surveying participants’ current emotions and recent (past hour) social experiences 5 times daily for 14 days. Age 3 BI was correlated with lower average positive affect and the tendency to appraise social interactions as less positive at age 18. Additionally, while BI was not correlated with average negative affect nor with frequency of social interaction, it was associated with a tendency to report heightened anxiety following less positive, more negative, and more nervous/uncomfortable social interactions. Results suggest that young adults who were behaviorally inhibited as children tend to experience lower levels of positive emotion in general and more anxiety specifically in the context of uncomfortable and less pleasant social interactions. Further, while they appear to engage in social interactions with equal frequency, they tend to find social interactions less rewarding. Our sample is relatively homogeneous with respect to race and ethnicity, limiting generalization to more diverse samples.