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Nimphy CA, Mitrou V, Elzinga BM, Van der Does W, Aktar E. The Role of Parental Verbal Threat Information in Children's Fear Acquisition: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 2024:10.1007/s10567-024-00485-4. [PMID: 38789695 DOI: 10.1007/s10567-024-00485-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/21/2024] [Indexed: 05/26/2024]
Abstract
Children can acquire fears of novel stimuli as a result of listening to parental verbal threat information about these stimuli (i.e., instructional learning). While empirical studies have shown that learning via parental information occurs, the effect size of parental verbal threat information on child fear of a novel stimulus has not yet been measured in a meta-analysis. We conducted a systematic review and meta analysis to assess the effect of parents' verbal statements on their children's fear acquisition. Additionally, we explored potential moderators of this effect, namely, parent and child anxiety levels, as well as child age. WebOfScience, Pubmed, Medline, and PsycINFO were used to identify eligible studies that assessed children's (30 months to 18 years old) fear of novel stimuli after being exposed to parental verbal threat information. We selected 17 studies for the meta-analysis and 18 for the systematic review. The meta-analysis revealed a significant causal effect of parental verbal threat information on children's fear reaction towards novel stimuli [g = 1.26]. No evidence was found for a moderation of verbal learning effects, neither by child or parent anxiety levels nor by child age. The effect of parents' verbal threat information on children's fear of novel stimuli is large and not dependent on anxiety levels or child age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cosima Anna Nimphy
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
| | - Vasiliki Mitrou
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Bernet M Elzinga
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Willem Van der Does
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden University Treatment Center (LUBEC), Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Evin Aktar
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden, The Netherlands
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Allen KB, Tan PZ, Sullivan JA, Baumgardner M, Hunter H, Glovak SN. An Integrative Model of Youth Anxiety: Cognitive-Affective Processes and Parenting in Developmental Context. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 2023; 26:1025-1051. [PMID: 37819403 DOI: 10.1007/s10567-023-00458-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/14/2023] [Indexed: 10/13/2023]
Abstract
Multiple theoretical frameworks have been proposed to provide a more comprehensive picture of the risk factors that influence anxiety-related developmental trajectories. Nonetheless, there remains a need for an integrative model that outlines: (1) which risk factors may be most pertinent at different points in development, and (2) how parenting may maintain, exacerbate, or attenuate an affective style that is characterized by high negative emotional reactivity to unfamiliar, uncertain, and threatening situations. A developmentally informed, integrative model has the potential to guide treatment development and delivery, which is critical to reducing the public health burden associated with these disorders. This paper outlines a model integrating research on many well-established risk mechanisms for anxiety disorders, focusing on (1) the developmental progression from emotional reactivity constructs early in life to those involving higher-level cognitive processes later in youth, and (2) potential pathways by which parenting may impact the stability of youth's cognitive-affective responses to threat-relevant information across development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristy Benoit Allen
- Departments of Applied Behavioral Science and Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA.
| | - Patricia Z Tan
- Department of Psychiatry/Mental Health, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | | | - Megan Baumgardner
- Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
| | - Hannah Hunter
- Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
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Aktar E. Intergenerational Transmission of Anxious Information Processing Biases: An Updated Conceptual Model. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 2022; 25:182-203. [PMID: 35218453 PMCID: PMC8948131 DOI: 10.1007/s10567-022-00390-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Anxiety disorders are globally one of the most prevalent and disabling forms of psychopathology in adults and children. Having a parent with an anxiety disorder multiplies the risk of anxiety disorders in the offspring, although the specific mechanisms and processes that play a role in this intergenerational transmission remain largely unknown. According to information processing theories, threat-related biases in cognitive processing are a causal mechanism in the development and maintenance of anxiety. These theories propose that individuals with anxiety are more likely to cognitively process novel stimuli in their environment as threatening. Creswell and colleagues proposed a theoretical model that highlighted the role of these cognitive biases as a mechanism in the intergenerational transmission of anxiety (Creswell et al., in Hadwin, Field (eds) Information processing biases and anxiety: a developmental perspective, Wiley, pp 279–295, 2010). This model postulated significant associations between (1) parents’ and children’s threat-related cognitive biases (2) parents’ threat-related cognitive biases in their own and their child’s environment, (3) parents’ threat-related cognitive biases and parenting behaviors that convey anxiety risk to the offspring (e.g., modeling of fear, and verbal threat information transmission), and (4) parenting behaviors and child threat-related biases. This theoretical review collated the recent empirical work testing these four core hypotheses of the model. Building on the reviewed empirical work, an updated conceptual model focusing on threat-related attention and interpretation is proposed. This updated model incorporates the links between cognition and anxiety in parents and children and addresses the potential bidirectional nature of parent–child influences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Evin Aktar
- Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology Unit, Leiden, The Netherlands. .,Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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McLean MA, Cobham VE, Simcock G, Lequertier B, Kildea S, King S. Childhood Anxiety: Prenatal Maternal Stress and Parenting in the QF2011 Cohort. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 2021; 52:389-398. [PMID: 32661580 DOI: 10.1007/s10578-020-01024-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
In this study we examine whether specific 'anxiety-maintaining' parenting behaviors (i.e., overinvolvement and/or negativity) exacerbate the effects of disaster-related prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) on school-age anxiety symptoms. Women (N = 230), pregnant at the time of the 2011 Queensland Floods, reported on their experience of flood-related PNMS (objective hardship, cognitive appraisal, subjective distress). At 4-years, mother-child dyads were coded for maternal overinvolvement and negativity during a challenging task; at 6-years mothers reported on their children's anxiety symptoms and their own mood, N = 83. Results showed no associations between PNMS and 6-year anxiety, nor did parenting moderate these effects. Poorer maternal concurrent mood was associated with greater anxiety symptoms at 6 years (β = 0.52). Findings suggest maternal concurrent mood, but not exposure to disaster-related PNMS nor 'anxiety-maintaining' parenting behaviors at preschool age, is related to school-age anxiety symptoms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mia A McLean
- Mater Research Institute-University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.,School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Vanessa E Cobham
- Mater Research Institute-University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.,School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Gabrielle Simcock
- Mater Research Institute-University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.,School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.,Thompson Institute, University of Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, QLD, Australia
| | - Belinda Lequertier
- Mater Research Institute-University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.,School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Sue Kildea
- Mater Research Institute-University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.,Molly Wardaguga Research Center, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Charles Darwin University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Suzanne King
- Schizophrenia and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Research, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, 6875 LaSalle Blvd., Verdun, QC, H4H 1R3, Canada. .,Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
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Parents still matter! Parental warmth predicts adolescent brain function and anxiety and depressive symptoms 2 years later. Dev Psychopathol 2021; 33:226-239. [PMID: 32096757 DOI: 10.1017/s0954579419001718] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
Abstract
Anxiety is the most prevalent psychological disorder among youth, and even following treatment, it confers risk for anxiety relapse and the development of depression. Anxiety disorders are associated with heightened response to negative affective stimuli in the brain networks that underlie emotion processing. One factor that can attenuate the symptoms of anxiety and depression in high-risk youth is parental warmth. The current study investigates whether parental warmth helps to protect against future anxiety and depressive symptoms in adolescents with histories of anxiety and whether neural functioning in the brain regions that are implicated in emotion processing and regulation can account for this link. Following treatment for anxiety disorder (Time 1), 30 adolescents (M age = 11.58, SD = 1.26) reported on maternal warmth, and 2 years later (Time 2) they participated in a functional neuroimaging task where they listened to prerecorded criticism and neutral statements from a parent. Higher maternal warmth predicted lower neural activation during criticism, compared with the response during neutral statements, in the left amygdala, bilateral insula, subgenual anterior cingulate (sgACC), right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex. Maternal warmth was associated with adolescents' anxiety and depressive symptoms due to the indirect effects of sgACC activation, suggesting that parenting may attenuate risk for internalizing through its effects on brain function.
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