Recall of family factors in social phobia and panic disorder: Comparison of mother and offspring reports

Abstract

Previous research has indicated that adults with various anxiety disorders, especially social phobia, recall their parents as excessively protective and controlling and as low in socialization. However, it is not clear whether such results would be supported by parents. In the present study subjects with social phobia, panic disorder, and nonclinical subjects and their mothers were given parallel measures of maternal control, socialization, and offspring early introverted behaviors as well as several questions relating to two early major life events and family size. Anxious offspring reported the usual high maternal control and low paternal socialization and mothers supported the data on socialization. On control, mothers provided mixed results, disagreeing on a more standard measure, but showing agreement on a more operationalized measure. The data were more consistent for social phobia than for panic disorder. In terms of early life factors, both anxiety disorders were associated with fewer friends and more introverted behaviors, while family size and two major life events did not differentiate groups. Depression and Anxiety 5:7–11, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Social anxiety in first-episode psychosis: The role of childhood trauma and adult attachment

“…Parental overcontrol and overprotection have been previously linked to the development of social anxiety (47,48). Emotional abuse and emotional neglect are the most frequently reported types of childhood trauma by individuals with SaD (11,49).…”

Early Adolescents’ Perceptions of Their Mother’s Anxious Parenting as a Predictor of Anxiety Symptoms 12 Months Later

“…Surprisingly, this style of parent influence has received considerably less attention despite its theoretical importance (Field 2006;Hudson and Rapee 2004;Mineka and Zinbarg 2006). Some evidence has supported an association between anxious parenting and anxiety in middle childhood (Gruner et al 1999;Muris et al 1996;Whaley et al 1999) and adulthood (Bruch et al 1989;Rapee and Melville 1997), while some experimental work has demonstrated the ability for very young children to learn fears from maternal demonstration of fearful responding (de Rosnay et al 2006;Gerull and Rapee 2002;Murray et al 2008). Together, these two styles of parent child interaction, overprotection and anxious rearing, can be referred to as anxious parenting.…”

Social anxiety disorder: A review of environmental risk factors

“…Specifically, parenting traits such as overcontrol, lack of warmth or rejection, and overprotection are known to be associated with the etiology of this disorder (Stark et al 1990;Rapee 1997;Caster et al 1999;Hudson and Rapee 2000;Hidalgo et al 2001;Ollendick and Hirshfeld-Becker 2002;Neal and Edelmann 2003;Hollenstein et al 2004;Chavira and Stein 2005). Although most of the research has focused on maternal parenting, fathers are fi nally being included in the research as possible contributors to child behavior problems, especially in later childhood (Rapee and Melville 1997;Greco and Morris 2002). Even the impact of siblings is starting to attract attention (Lindhout et al 2003).…”

“…Rapee's own work confi rmed this fi nding when he collected retrospective information on rearing practices from both socially anxious adult participants and their mothers. His research showed that parental overcontrol and rejection were signifi cantly related to children's anxiety symptoms (Rapee and Melville 1997). Rapee et al also proposed that parental overcontrol might specifi cally play a role in the onset and maintenance of social anxiety, and parental rejection correlates more specifi cally with child depression.…”

“…Research into the familial infl uences on child psychopathology has primarily focused on the anxious child and mother (Rapee and Melville 1997). Often the father's contribution to parenting is encapsulated in the 'parent' response, implying both father and mother have identical parenting styles.…”