Left Out in the Game—Better Understanding Anxiety

Children can feel scared sometimes, and some might feel scared more often than others. We wanted to understand why people who feel scared as babies often still feel scared as teenagers, while others no longer do. Therefore, we followed more than 2,700 babies as they grew up. The parents told us how scared their kids were as babies and then again as teenagers. We also studied how kids responded during an online ball-throwing game, which they thought they played with others (but it was actually the computer). We found that kids who were very scared as babies were more likely to feel scared as teenagers. This was especially true for kids who felt bad after being excluded by others during the game. This tells us that maybe we can help those kids feel less scared by teaching them how to deal with feeling left out.