Family and Parent Predictors of Anxiety Disorder Onset in Offspring of Anxious Parents

Abstract

Background Offspring of anxious parents are at increased risk for developing anxiety disorders. There is a need to identify which youth are at greatest risk for disorder onset in this population. Objective This study prospectively examined several theory-based family and parent characteristics (e. g., family conflict, parental over-control, parental psychopathology) as predictors of anxiety disorder onset in children whose parents were clinically anxious. Methods Families were enrolled in a randomized controlled trial evaluating a familybased preventative intervention, relative to an information monitoring control condition, for offspring of anxious parents (N= 136; child mean age 8.69 years; 55% female; 85% Caucasian). Family and parent measures were collected using multiple informants and an observational task at baseline, post-intervention, and at a six and 12 month followup. Child anxiety disorder diagnosis was determined by independent evaluators using the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for Children. Results Results indicated that none of the baseline family or parent variables examined predicted the onset of an anxiety disorder in children over the one year follow-up period. Conclusions Findings raise questions about the short-term risk associated with family and parent factors in anxiety disorder development in this high risk population.

Trajectories of tornado-related posttraumatic stress symptoms and pre-exposure predictors in a sample of at-risk youth.

“…Theoretical models of parenting and youth anxiety suggest that certain parenting behaviors, such as overinvolvement or overprotectiveness, increase youth anxiety through several pathways (see Schleider & Weisz, 2017). One such pathway is that greater control and less autonomy granting increase these youths’ external locus of control and decrease effective coping (Ginsburg, Schleider, Yun Tein, & Drake, 2018). Several studies have looked specifically at the positive parenting construct of “involvement” and found that high levels of caregiver involvement were associated with youth internalizing symptoms (e.g., Colder, Lochman, & Wells, 1997; Otto et al, 2016).…”

Severe Social Anxiety Among Adolescents During COVID-19 Lockdown

“…Genetic factors include familial temperamental fearfulness and withdrawal in response to novel stimuli. 31 While environmental factors include parenting practices, such as over-involvement or overprotection from parents and/or harsh familial interactions and family socioeconomic conditions. 32,33 Both factors may cause substantial impairment in family relationships, academic achievements, and vice versa.…”

Evaluation of mediating and moderating effects on the relationship between owners’ and dogs’ anxiety: A tool to understand a complex problem

“…In human research there is some evidence that individuals with high trait anxiety may show hyper-responsiveness to moderately threatening or ambiguous, stimuli, and a negative affective bias in attention that facilitates the detection of threats and aversiveness (Hu & Dolcos, 2017;Weger & Sandi, 2018). There are data suggesting that anxious parents engage in more over-controlling parenting practices ("helicopter parents") and that this parental behavior increases child anxiety (Rapee, 1997;Chorpita and Barlow, 1998;Ginsburg and Schlossberg, 2002;Gouze et al, 2017;Ginsburg et al, 2018). Given the documented similarities between child-directed and dog-directed parenting styles (Van Herwijnen et al, 2018), it is plausible that dog owners with high trait anxiety may be more protective and controlling of their dogs and limit their ability to familiarize with novel stimuli, thereby leading to dogs" fear and anxiety-related behavior problems.…”