Your Fear is My Fear: The Relationship Between Parental and Offspring Anxieties.
Your Fear is My Fear: The Relationship Between Parental and Offspring Anxieties.
Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2020 Sep 18;:
Authors: Adolph D, Margraf J, Schneider S
Abstract
Contrary to the well-documented link between parental and offspring clinical anxiety, little is known about the relationship between parental everyday-life anxieties (e.g., concerning family, finances, health) and offspring anxieties. To close this gap, we assessed the frequency of parental symptoms of DSM-IV anxiety disorders and everyday-life anxieties, as well as the frequency of offspring anxiety symptoms in a representative sample by self-report. Parents reported that 48.4% of the children were free of specific symptoms of DSM-IV anxiety disorders within the last 12 months, 39.2% showed low symptom load (1-3 symptoms) and 12.4% were moderately or severely strained (4-10 symptoms). Replicating previous studies, parental DSM-IV symptoms increased offspring risk for the same symptoms. In addition, parental everyday-life anxieties showed a positive relationship with offspring symptom severity. Demographic variables (female sex, low socioeconomic status and younger age) and parental anxiety markers explained 18% of variance in offspring symptom severity. The data are discussed in light of current models of familial transmission.
PMID: 32948972 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Child Psychiatry and Human Development - Category: Child Development Authors: Adolph D, Margraf J, Schneider S Tags: Child Psychiatry Hum Dev Source Type: research