Intergenerational transmission of shyness, or the social process through which shy characteristics or behavioral patterns demonstrated by parents are passed on to their children, has received recent empirical attention and has suggested a positive relationship between levels of shyness in parents and children. One factor that may relate to this relationship is the attitudes parents hold toward having a shy child. The present study sought to illuminate several questions surrounding parental attitudes toward shyness and the presence of withdrawn, inhibited behavior in children. It was hypothesized that: a) parental attitudes toward shyness and shyness in parents would interact to influence inhibited behavior in children; and b) childrearing practices would serve as a mediator in the anticipated relationship between parental attitudes toward shyness and inhibited behavior in children. Results indicated a significant positive relationship between parental attitudes toward shyness and withdrawn, inhibited behavior in children, as well as a series of significant relationships between parental attitudes toward shyness and specific parenting strategies. No significant moderational or mediational effects were found, however. / Master of Science

Although behavioral inhibition has been found to be relatively stable, such stability has not always been shown. Moreover, although an association between parental shyness and child behavioral inhibition has been reported, this relationship is imperfect and indirect. The present study proposed that one factor that may impact these relationships is the attitudes parents hold toward having a shy, inhibited child. Although shyness is typically regarded as a negative and maladaptive trait, it is not necessarily viewed as problematic by all parents. The present study investigated a series of ten specific hypotheses that centered around the notion that variations in parental attitudes toward shyness may lead some parents to encourage and other parents to discourage behaviors typically associated with shyness in their young children. Using a longitudinal design, the present study examined the relations among the constructs of parental attitudes toward shyness, child behavioral inhibition, childrearing strategies, and parental shyness over a span of two years in a sample of 3 to 6 year-old children and their parents. Results revealed several interesting and valuable findings. Maternal attitudes toward shyness emerged as a moderator of the relationship between behavioral inhibition at Time 1 and Time 2. Maternal attitudes toward shyness also emerged as a significant moderator of the relationship between maternal shyness and child behavioral inhibition. However, childrearing strategies did not mediate the relationship between maternal attitudes toward shyness and behavioral inhibition in children as predicted. / Ph. D.

A sizeable proportion of adults suffer from an anxiety disorder and many of those adults are parents. Parental anxiety, as well as dysfunctional family environment, contributes to both internalizing and externalizing problems in children. Specifically, family control, conflict, and cohesion have been shown to predict child internalizing and externalizing symptoms to varying degrees. However, few studies have examined the association between all three components in the same study: parental psychopathology, family environment, and child outcomes. The current study tested the relationships among these variables in a sample of 189 children (66% male, 93% Caucasian, mean age = 10.34 years). Family conflict predicted child externalizing symptoms for both mothers and fathers, and mediated the relationship between maternal anxiety and child externalizing symptoms. Family cohesion predicted child externalizing problems based on maternal report and mediated the relationship between maternal anxiety and child externalizing symptoms. Furthermore, family cohesion moderated the relationship between maternal anxiety and child internalizing symptoms. These findings provide preliminary support for the role of the family environment in the relationship between parental anxiety and child psychopathology, and these environmental variables may be important targets of intervention in families with elevated parental anxiety. / Master of Science

abstract: Data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) was used to study the role of child individual, parental, and environmental predictors of anxiety across childhood and adolescence. Longitudinal growth modeling was used to examine the influence of behavioral inhibition, parental control, parental anxiety and stressful life events on the developmental progression of anxiety from 4 to 15 years of age. Based on these data, it appears that there are significant developmental differences between the role of child individual, parental and environmental risk factors. These results highlight the importance of considering developmental factors when assessing and targeting risk for anxiety. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Psychology 2012

The proposed study examined the relationship between parental anxiety, measured both subjectively (via self-report questionnaires) and objectively (via salivary cortisol) and the child's feeding progress. Children diagnosed with a feeding disorder were recruited with their parents at Our Children's House at Baylor (n=19; 11 females, 8 males). The patients and their parents were housed in the clinic for an eight-week intensive multidisciplinary pediatric feeding disorder treatment program. Calorie intake was recorded daily as outcome measures of treatment progression. Parental anxiety was measured by the Pediatric Inventory for Parents (PIP), state anxiety on the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and by salivary cortisol at three different time points. The present study attempted to examine whether parental feeding (phase three of treatment program) would continue to cause a decrease in the child's caloric intake. In averaging ten meals prior to parental feeding in comparison to the average of ten meals following parental feeding, there was no significant difference as measured by a t-test. Paired t-tests examined parental anxiety from time one to time two and found that salivary cortisol increased significantly t(15) = -6.07, p = .000 from Time 1 (M = 2.30, SD = 1.64) to Time 2 (M = 5.24, SD = 2.58). This demonstrated that while parental anxiety increased as measured by salivary cortisol, the children continued to make improvements. This may be the result of the multidisciplinary feeding program which encompassed a strong behavioral component and parent training. Even though the current results did not demonstrate a direct relationship between parental stress and caloric intake, parental stress as measured by salivary cortisol did increase.

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Theoretical models specify that anxiety aggregates in families. Research confirmed maternal anxiety as a predictor of childhood anxiety; however, very little evidence exists in support of paternal anxiety's role in child anxiety as well as about potentially reciprocal relationships between parental and child anxiety. The parent-child anxiety transmission mechanisms are also not fully understood; the majority of previous research focuses on the child's acquisition of anxiety symptoms from a parent via cognitive processes. Recent integrative theoretical models propose that child emotion regulation processes might be involved in parent-child anxiety transmission. The current dissertation aimed to address these gaps in literature. Both studies utilized data from over 800 mothers, 400 fathers, and their children drawn from the longitudinal NICHD Study of Early Childcare and Youth Development. Measures of maternal anxiety, paternal anxiety, child anxiety, and child emotion dysregulation were collected over a nine-year period when children were between the ages of 6 and 15 years. Study I provided evidence of significant indirect effects from parental anxiety to child anxiety through child emotion dysregulation for both mother-child and the father-child relationships. Child emotion dysregulation was non-significant in the father-child path of a family model, despite significant direct effects. The results provide evidence for child emotion dysregulation as an underlying process of parent-child anxiety transmission. Study II provided evidence of significant bidirectional predictive links of maternal anxiety and child anxiety across ages 6, 8, 10, and 15 years tested in a mother-child cross-lagged path model. Significant predictive paths from paternal anxiety to child anxiety were found from ages 6 to 8 and a significant predictive path from child anxiety to paternal anxiety was found from age 10 to age 15 in a father-child cross-lagged model. Additional tests of family models confirmed that there were unique effects of both maternal and paternal anxiety on child anxiety over time. The results show the long-term impact of both maternal anxiety and paternal anxiety on child anxiety as well as child anxiety's reciprocal effects on parental anxiety. Both studies demonstrate the importance of both mothers and fathers in childhood anxiety etiology. / Doctor of Philosophy / Research has shown that anxiety might run in families, and that parental and child anxieties might reinforce each other. In research, most attention is paid to mothers and how their anxiety influences child anxiety, including how children learn their anxious experiencing from their mothers. Very little research has been dedicated to studying fathers and how their anxiety might impact their children. The current two studies of this dissertation wanted to better understand how maternal and paternal anxiety shape child anxiety over the years. Study I tested whether the way how children regulate their emotions is influenced by parental anxiety and whether it contributes to their own anxiety. The evidence shows both mother and father anxiety influence children's regulation of their emotions, and in turn, this contributes to child anxiety. Therefore, how children control their emotions impacts how parental anxiety shapes child anxiety. Study II tested whether parental anxiety influences child anxiety consistently over time as children become adolescents. Study II also tested whether child anxiety contributes to parental anxiety over the years. Results showed that maternal and child anxiety consistently foretold each other when children were at 8, 10, and 15 years old. The results for fathers were more complicated and showed that father anxiety likely influences child anxiety when children are younger, while child anxiety influences paternal anxiety when children are older, during their teenage years. Both studies highlighted showed the importance of both mother and father anxiety to better understand child anxiety.

Extant research suggests a link between child temperamental negativity and parental anxiety and depression. However, most studies focus on temperamental negativity generally, and over fairly short longitudinal time spans. The present study extended the time span well beyond immediate postnatal infancy and explored associations between specific child temperament dimensions, both positive and negative, and parental psychopathology. We expected positive relationships between temperamental negative affectivity and parental mental health problems, but an inverse relation involving temperamental effortful control. Data were collected on child temperament, and parental anxiety and depression, using a cross-sectional design and anonymous survey methodology across five child age groups: infancy (INF; 3 - 13 months, N ≅ 83), toddler (TOD; 14 - 36 months, N ≅ 94), early childhood (EC; 3 - 7 years, N ≅ 81), middle/late childhood (MLC; 8 - 10 years, N ≅ 31), and early adolescence (EA; 10 - 15 years, N ≅ 38). REDCap survey links were published on several dozen social media outlets and relevant listservs. Across all datasets, parental respondents primarily identified as white and female. Child gender distribution was approximately equal between girls and boys. We used the Rothbart family of instruments to assess temperamental negative affectivity and effortful control in each sample (i.e., IBQ-R Short Form, ECBQ Short Form, CBQ Short Form, TMCQ Standard Form, and EATQ-R Short Form, respectively). Parental anxiety was measured by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD-7), and parental depression was measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Associations involving child negative affectivity were generally consistent with expectations. Results indicated positive correlations between parental anxiety and child negative affectivity in 4 out of 5 groups (INF: r(83) = .25, p = .02; TOD: r(94) = .27, p = .01; EC: r(81) = .37, p < .001; EA: r(39) = .57, p < .001), and between parental depression and child negative affectivity in all age groups (INF: r(81) = .26, p = .02; TOD: r(91) = .22, p = .03; EAC: r(80) = .26, p = .02; MLC: r(30) = .42, p = .02; EAA: r(37) = .42, p = .01). Effortful control was negatively, but less robustly, correlated with parental anxiety (TOD: r(94) = -.22, p = .03; EAA: r(39) = -.44, p = .02) and depression (TOD: r(91) = -.29, p = .01; MLC: r(30) = .45, p = .01). Although we make no assumptions regarding directions of effect between child temperament and parental mental health, bidirectional influences seem likely. For example, parental mental health problems probably exacerbate temperamental negative affectivity, and temperamental negative affectivity probably exacerbates parental mental health problems. This study provides an important expansion of the timeframes of associations between parental mental health and child temperament.

No description available.