Parenting and child anxiety
Creswell C., Murray L., Stacey J., Cooper P.
© Cambridge University Press 2001, 2011. Parenting and child and adolescent anxiety disorders Intergenerational studies have shown that anxiety disorders commonly run in families (e.g., Noyes, Clarkson, Crowe, Yates, & McChesney, 1987), yet genetic research consistently points to a strong environmental component in the etiology of childhood anxiety disorders (e.g., Gregory & Eley, 2007). As such, research attention is increasingly looking to the role of parenting to help explain the intergenerational transmission of anxiety. The aim of this chapter is to review recent evidence and present a model of the influence of parental cognitions, expressed affect, and behavior in the development of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. A cautionary note A large number of studies conducted over the past two decades have found associations between parenting and youth anxiety; however, in many the associations have been of modest magnitude. McLeod, Wood, and Weisz (2007) reported that parenting (as a general construct incorporating rejection and control) accounted for only 4% of the variance in childhood anxiety. For this reason it is important to consider parental factors as one potential risk or maintenance pathway amongst others. The exact contribution that parental factors make remains unclear for several reasons.