Fathers' role in the etiology, prevention and treatment of child anxiety: A review and new model
Section snippets
Fathers’ role in normal development in children: do fathers matter?
We review four aspects of the paternal role, which seem relevant in the context of understanding fathers' roles in the development of child anxiety: (1) play, (2) attachment, (3) closeness/involvement, and (4) their indirect role through their influence on the mother.
The role of the father in child psychopathology
A review of Phares and Compas (1992) pointed out substantial evidence for a relationship of paternal psychopathology and other paternal factors, such as paternal-child interaction, with child externalizing disorders. To illustrate, Amato and Rivera (1999) found that in a large study of 994 households, higher paternal involvement was associated with less behavior problems as rated by mothers in their children, even after correcting for maternal involvement. This study demonstrated that fathers
Fathers' involvement in the treatment of childhood anxiety
Parents are not always included in the treatment of developmental psychopathology. This section will first discuss the lack of parental involvement in treatment of developmental psychopathology in general and then will address the specific lack of involvement of parents in the treatment of childhood anxiety disorders. Next, fathers' involvement in the treatment of the wide variety of types of developmental psychopathology will be addressed, followed by an exploration of fathers' involvement in
Discussion and model
The empirical evidence for the role of the father in the etiology, prevention and treatment of childhood anxiety was reviewed. The following conclusions can be drawn: (I) Fathers have been neglected in research on the etiology, prevention and treatment of childhood anxiety; (II) research on normal development suggests that fathers play an important and different role than mothers in the socialization of children and in the protection against severe anxiety; (III) research in the area of
Acknowledgement
This paper was supported by an NWO-VIDI grant, number 452-05-345 to the first author.
References (139)
- et al.
At risk for anxiety: I. Psychopathology in the offspring of anxious parents
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
(1997) - et al.
A high risk study of young children of parents with panic disorder and agoraphobia with and without comorbid depression
Psychiatry Research
(1991) - et al.
Family issues in child anxiety: Attachment, family functioning, parental rearing and beliefs
Clinical Psychology Review
(2006) - et al.
Family cognitive behavioral therapy for children and adolescents with clinical anxiety disorders
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
(2006) - et al.
The relationship between child-report, parent self-report, and partner report of perceived parental rearing behaviors and anxiety in children and parents
Personality and Individual Differences
(2004) - et al.
Familial correlates of social anxiety in children and adolescents
Behaviour Research and Therapy
(2001) - et al.
The connections between adolescents' perceptions of parents, parental psychological symptoms, and adolescent functioning
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
(2003) - et al.
Affective disorders in the parents of a clinical sample of children with anxiety disorders
Journal of Affective Disorders
(2006) - et al.
Familial predictors of treatment outcome in childhood anxiety disorders
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
(2001) - et al.
Transmission of social anxiety from mother to infant: An experimental study using a social referencing paradigm
Behaviour Research and Therapy
(2006)
The role of father involvement in children's later mental health
Journal of Adolescence
Mother knows best: The effect of maternal modelling on acquisition of fear and avoidance behaviour in toddlers
Behaviour Research and Therapy
Family involvement in treating children with phobic and anxiety disorders: A look ahead
Clinical Psychology Review
Early childhood predictors of adult anxiety disorders
Biological Psychiatry
The relations among depression in fathers, children's psychopathology, and father–child conflict: A meta-analysis
Clinical Psychology Review
Setting the research and practice agenda for anxiety in children and adolescence: A topic comes of age
Cognitive and Behavioral Practice
Security of mother– and father–infant attachment and its relation to sociability with strangers in traditional and non-traditional Swedish families
Infant Behavior and Development
Involving fathers in social services
Children and Youth Services Review
Longitudinal assessment of autonomy and relatedness in adolescent-family interactions as predictors of ego development and self-esteem
Child Development
Contact with nonresidential parents, interparental conflict, and children's behavior
Journal of Family Issues
Paternal involvement and children's behavior problems
Journal of Marriage and the Family
Father involvement in parent training: When does it matter?
Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology
Should parents be co-clients in cognitive–behavioral therapy for anxious youth?
Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology
Adult daughter–parent relationships and their associations with daughters' subjective well-being and psychological distress
Journal of Marriage and the Family
Adult son–parent relationships and their associations with sons' psychological distress
Journal of Family Issues
Family treatment of childhood anxiety: A controlled trial
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
Cognitive–behavioral treatment of anxiety disorders in children: Long-term (6-year) follow-up
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
Parent–child interactions with anxious children and with their siblings: An observational study
Behaviour Change
Parental involvement in the treatment of anxious children
Prevention strategies
Variation in susceptibility to environmental influence: An evolutionary argument
Psychological Inquiry
The Pennsylvania infant and family development project: I. Stability and change in mother–infant and father–infant interaction in a family setting at one, three, and nine months
Child Development
Mothering, fathering and infant negativity as antecedents of boys' externalizing problems and inhibition at age 3: Differential susceptibility to rearing experiences?
Development and Psychopathology
Parental marital quality, parental divorce, and relations with parents
Journal of Marriage and the Family
A multifactorial model for the aetiology of anxiety in non-clinical adolescents: Main and interactive effects of behavioural inhibition, attachment, and parental rearing
Journal of Child and Family Studies
Maternal depression, paternal psychopathology, and adolescent diagnostic outcomes
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
Effective psychosocial treatments of conduct-disordered children and adolescents: 29 years, 82 studies, and 5,272 kids
Journal of Clinical Child Psychology
Mothers' reports of paternal support: Associations with maternal child-rearing attitudes
Merrill Palmer Quarterly
The preoedipal infant–father relationship
Psychoanalytic Study of Child
Fatherhood in the twenty-first century
Child Development
A new cognitive behavioural parenting intervention for families of young anxious children: A pilot study
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy
Moving away from the world: Life-course patterns of shy children
Developmental Psychology
Antisocial behavior in children and adolescents: The Oregon multidimensional treatment foster care model
Cognitive processing in children: Relation to anxiety and family influences
Journal of Clinical Child Psychology
And daddy makes three: The father's impact on mother and young child
Child Development
The association between psychopathology in fathers versus mothers and children internalizing and externalizing behavior problems: A meta-analysis
Psychological Bulletin
Father involvement in parent training for oppositional child behavior: Progress or stagnation?
Child and Family Behavior Therapy
Concepts of deviance in children and adolescents: The case of Japan
Deviant Behavior
Cited by (366)
You take after your father: Paternal grit and young adult self-employment
2023, Journal of Business Venturing InsightsParental anxiety and offspring development: A systematic review
2023, Journal of Affective DisordersAdventurous play for a healthy childhood: Facilitators and barriers identified by parents in Britain
2023, Social Science and MedicinePaternal Activation as a Protective Factor against Problem Behaviors in Early Childhood
2024, Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology