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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Aim:
The present work aimed to investigate the impact of the child’s cognitions associated with ambiguous
stimuli that refer to anxiety, both parents’ fears and anxiety, and parents’ attributions to the child’s interpretations of
ambiguous stimuli on child anxiety. The influence of parental modelling on child’s cognitions was also analyzed.
Method:
The final sample was composed of 111 children (62 boys; 49 girls) with ages between 10 and 11 years
(M = 10.6, SD = 0.5) from a community population, and both their parents. The variables identified as most
significant were included in a predictive model of anxiety.
Results:
Results revealed the children’s thoughts (positive and negative) related to ambiguous stimuli that
describe anxiety situations. Parents’ fears and mothers’ anxiety significantly predict children’s anxiety. Those
variables explain 29% of the variance in children general anxiety. No evidence was found for a direct parental
modeling of child cognitions.
Conclusion:
Children’s positive thoughts seem to be cognitive aspects that buffer against anxiety. Negative
thoughts are vulnerability factors for the development of child anxiety. Parents’ fears and anxiety should be analyzed
in separate as they have distinct influences over children’s anxiety. Mothers’ fears contribute to children’s anxiety by
reducing it, revealing a possible protective effect. It is suggested that the contribution of both parents’ fears to
children’s anxiety may be interpreted acknowledging the existence of “psychological and/or behavioral filters”.
Mothers’ filters seem to be well developed while fathers’ filters seem to be compromised. The contribution of
mothers’ anxiety (but not fathers’ anxiety) to children’s anxiety is also understood in light of the possible existence of
a “proximity space” between the child and parents, which is wider with mothers than with fathers.
Description
Keywords
Casual relation Child anxiety Mother and father Fear and anxiety Cognitions
Citation
Clinical and Experimental Psychology, 2, 1-11. doi: 10.4172/2471-2701.1000131
Publisher
OMICS International