Parenting and childhood anxiety: theory, empirical findings, and future directions

Abstract

Theories of anxiety development suggest that parental acceptance, control, and modeling of anxious behaviors are associated with children's manifestations of anxiety. This paper reviews research published in the past decade on the relation between parenting and childhood anxiety. Observed parental control during parent-child interactions was consistently linked with shyness and child anxiety disorders across studies. Mixed support for the role of parental acceptance and modeling of anxious behaviors was found in observational studies. However, there was little evidence supporting the contention that self-reported parenting style was related to children's trait anxiety. Because of limitations associated with past research, inferences about the direction of effects linking parenting and child anxiety cannot be made. A conceptual framework based on recent models of anxiety development (e.g., Vasey & Dadds, 2001) is presented to aid in the interpretation of extant research findings and to provide suggestions for future research and theory development. Improved methodological designs are proposed, including the use of repeated-measure and experimental designs for examining the direction of effects.

The Parent Trauma Response Questionnaire (PTRQ): development and preliminary validation

“…The association between maladaptive parenting style and child PTSS is consistent with preliminary empirical evidence that parents’ own coping and response can influence a child’s post-trauma coping (Cobham, McDermott, Haslam, & Sanders, 2016; Marsac et al, 2013) and psychological adjustment (Ostrowski, Christopher, & Delahanty, 2006). Such parenting behaviours may increase a child’s perceived vulnerability to threat post-trauma and prevent the elaboration and processing of the child’s trauma memory (Salmond et al, 2011; Wood et al, 2003). That the trauma-specific support component (i.e.…”

Struggling with one’s own parenting after an upbringing with substance abusing parents

“…Fear of failure in this first area can have negative effects on how the other three areas develop. Further, if parents have difficulty in regulating their own anxiety, this can affect the child’s development in a negative way, and several studies describe a connection between overprotectiveness from the parent’s side and the growth of anxiety in the child (Bögels & Brechman-Toussaint, 2006; Macleod et al, 2008; Wood, McLeod, Sigman, Hwang, & Chu, 2003). …”

Temperament, Family Environment and Anxiety in Preschool Children

“…Negativity is conceptualised as parenting that is higher in criticism and lower in warmth. It is hypothesized that parents who are negative during interactions with their child may criticise and minimise the child's feelings, undermining the child's emotion regulation and increasing their sensitivity to anxiety (Wood, McLeod, Sigman, Hwang, & Chu, 2003). Overinvolvement is conceptualised as parenting behaviour that provides more assistance and help to the child than needed, overprotecting the child from potential danger or distress.…”