Examined the behavior of anxious parents in interactions with their children (ages 6 to 12 years) to test hypotheses about possible psychosocial mechanisms of transmission of anxiety from parent to child. Fifty-one parent-child dyads completed the study. Parents and children were assessed with structured interviews and participated in 2 tasks that were videotaped and coded. Twenty-five dyads had an anxious parent. Primary diagnoses of the anxious group were mostly panic disorder (PD), with or without agoraphobia (AG), social phobia (SP), and generalized anxiety disorder. Anxious participants were excluded if they presented a secondary diagnosis other than another anxiety disorder. Control parents had no present or past diagnosis. Observational data revealed that anxious parents were significantly less productively engaged and more withdrawn and disengaged during the interactions but did not differ from nonanxious parents in terms of overall levels of control. Sequential analyses indicated that there was a trend for both parent group and child sex to effect efforts to control the interaction in response to child expression of negative affect. Implications of these results for a mediational role of parental behavior in the development and maintenance of child anxiety are discussed.

No abstract

Examined the behavior of anxious parents in interactions with their children (ages 6 to 12 years) to test hypotheses about possible psychosocial mechanisms of transmission of anxiety from parent to child. Fifty-one parent-child dyads completed the study. Parents and children were assessed with structured interviews and participated in 2 tasks that were videotaped and coded. Twenty-five dyads had an anxious parent. Primary diagnoses of the anxious group were mostly panic disorder (PD), with or without agoraphobia (AG), social phobia (SP), and generalized anxiety disorder. Anxious participants were excluded if they presented a secondary diagnosis other than another anxiety disorder. Control parents had no present or past diagnosis. Observational data revealed that anxious parents were significantly less productively engaged and more withdrawn and disengaged during the interactions but did not differ from nonanxious parents in terms of overall levels of control. Sequential analyses indicated that there was a trend for both parent group and child sex to effect efforts to control the interaction in response to child expression of negative affect. Implications of these results for a mediational role of parental behavior in the development and maintenance of child anxiety are discussed.

Improving the quality of life is an important goal in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. The current study described subjective quality of life, or life satisfaction, in a sample of older adults with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Patients with GAD were compared to other anxious and nonpsychiatric samples on measures of life satisfaction. Older adults with GAD reported lower quality of life than did nonpsychiatric samples; levels of life satisfaction were comparable between older adults with GAD and younger adults with social phobia. Predictors of quality of life for the GAD sample were examined. Severity of depression predicted decreased life satisfaction as measured by both the Quality of Life Inventory (QOLI) and the Life Satisfaction Index (LSI-Z). Severity of anxiety predicted poorer quality of life as measured by the QOLI, and optimism predicted better life satisfaction as measured by the LSI-Z. The ® ndings suggest that quality of life is diminished in older adults with GAD, and that additional factors also affect quality of life for these patients.

No abstract