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Reduced Eye Contact And Anxiety In Women With The Fmr1 Premutation, Alexis Ruber

Senior Theses

Background. Mothers of children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) have the FMR1 premutation, which affects approximately 1 in 151 women (Seltzer et al., 2012). Women with the FMR1 premutation display elevated social anxiety (Bourgeois et al., 2011), which has been linked with higher levels of gaze anxiety and avoidance in other clinical groups (Schneider et al., 2011). While several studies have suggested women with FMR1 premutation have reduced eye contact (Tassone et al., 2000; Losh, Klusek et al., 2012; Riddle et al., 1998), no study has empirically examined reduced eye contact in the female FMR1 premutation. Like their children with …