Chapter 7 - Family Factors and the Development of Anxiety Disorders

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The chapter reviews aspects of family influences with potential importance for the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders. A longitudinal design is an important method employed to investigate the relationship between inhibited temperament in childhood and solitude/socially reticent behavior or anxiety problems later in life. Attachment refers to the establishment of early intimate relationships with caregivers who serve an evolutionary function as a protective and secure base from which a child can explore the world. The research investigating the role of parental psychopathology in the development of childhood anxiety disorders emphasizes the importance of considering the cyclic relationship between maternal behavior and child contributions to the parent-child interaction. The chapter explains that maternal anxiety can be directly correlated with an anxiety disorder in the child. Similarly, patterns of over control, over protection, or critical negativity also create the same tendencies and problems in the offspring.

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  • Examining potential risk factors for anxiety in early childhood

    2012, Journal of Anxiety Disorders
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    Approximately 15% of typically developing children display this temperament (Fox, Henderson, Marshall, Nichols, & Ghera, 2005). Research has indicated that children who are behaviourally inhibited are at increased risk for multiple anxiety disorders, phobic disorders (e.g., Biederman et al., 1990, 2001; Gar, Hudson, & Rapee, 2005; Gladstone, Parker, Mitchell, Wilhelm, & Malhi, 2005; Hirshfeld et al., 1992; Kagan, Snidman, Zentner, & Peterson, 1999; Rosenbaum et al., 1991; Shamir-Essakow, Ungerer, & Rapee, 2005) and more specifically, the development of social anxiety symptoms (Biederman et al., 2001; Hirshfeld-Becker, Micco, et al., 2008; Muris, van Brakel, Arntz, & Schouten, 2011; Schwartz, Snidman, & Kagan, 1999). Additionally, consistently high levels of BI from toddlerhood through to middle childhood have been linked to increased risk for phobias in childhood (Hirshfeld et al., 1992) and social anxiety in early adolescence (Chronis-Tuscano et al., 2009).

  • Maternal and child correlates of anxiety in 21/2-year-old children

    2010, Infant Behavior and Development
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    A child's confidence in the mother as a source of support increases as the mother responds consistently and predictably in a reassuring manner (Ainsworth et al., 1978). In contrast, children whose mothers are less consistently sensitive are at increased risk for developing insecure attachments, which contribute in turn to the development of anxiety symptoms and disorders (Gar, Hudson, & Rapee, 2005). To the extent that maternal sensitivity influences child anxiety through attachment security, we would expect children of less sensitive mothers to be more anxious than children of more sensitive mothers because they are insecurely attached.

  • Do parental psychopathology and unfavorable family environment predict the persistence of social phobia?

    2009, Journal of Anxiety Disorders
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    Consistent with selected clinical, epidemiological, and family genetic evidence (Bosquet & Egeland, 2006; Fyer, Mannuzza, Chapman, Liebowitz, & Klein, 1993; McClure, Brennan, Hammen, & Le Brocque, 2001; Merikangas, Lieb, Wittchen, & Aveneoli, 2003; Stein, Chartier, Lizak, & Jang, 2001), we demonstrated that parental psychopathology and negative parental rearing styles (Bruch, 1989; Gar, Hudson, & Rapee, 2005; McClure et al., 2001; Rapee & Spence, 2004; Woodruff-Borden, Morrow, Bourland, & Cambron, 2002), are significantly associated with increased rates of social phobia (SP) in offspring (Lieb et al., 2000b).

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