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Parent-Child Relationships and the Verbal Information Pathway to Fear in Children: Two Preliminary Experiments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2007

Andy P. Field
Affiliation:
University of Sussex, UK
Jess E. Ball
Affiliation:
University of Sussex, UK
Nicola J. Kawycz
Affiliation:
University of Sussex, UK
Harriett Moore
Affiliation:
University of Sussex, UK

Abstract

Parenting styles and the parent-child bond are associated with anxiety in children. Despite this association, little is known about the mechanism through which parenting has its effect. One possibility is that parenting interacts with other known pathways to fear. Two experiments are reported that look at the interaction between parenting styles and parent-child relationships and the verbal information pathway to fear. In Experiment 1, a punitive maternal parenting style was found to interact with the effect of threat information about a novel animal in 6–9-year-old children. Maternal warmth, neglect, overprotection and accurate monitoring were not found to have a significant effect. Experiment 2 showed that children reporting a greater number of negative interactions with their fathers had greater increases in fear beliefs about novel animals after both threat and no information. The quality of mother-child relationships did not significantly interact with the verbal information pathway. These experiments offer preliminary evidence that parenting practices influence how children react to negative information, which offers some insight into the potential causes of the association between parenting and anxiety in children.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2007 British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies

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