Effects of attachment and rearing behavior on anxiety in normal developing youth: A mediational study

Does dose matter? Parental attendance in a preventive intervention for anxious and sad children

BACKGROUND

International studies show increasing prevalence of anxiety and depression among children. Parents are vital for children in all aspects of life, also in supporting their offspring in promoting better mental health, life skills and reducing emotional difficulties. Therefore, involving parents in interventions aimed at preventing development of anxiety and depression is natural. In treatment studies, targeted parental involvement has been difficult to prove effective. However, few existing studies investigate the effect of parental involvement in preventive interventions.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to explore whether attendance influenced the change in child's emotional symptoms post intervention and one-year later reported by parents.

METHOD

Parents of children attending an indicated preventive intervention named EMOTION, who took part in a high parental involvement condition were included in this study (n = 385). High involvement entailed 5 parent group sessions. Using linear mixed models, we investigated whether attendance in the parent groups influenced the parent-reported levels of children's emotional symptoms post-intervention and at one-year follow-up.

RESULTS

Parents who did not attend parent sessions reported significantly larger reductions in child anxiety symptoms over time than attending parents. There was no such effect on child depression. However, parents who attended sessions reported significantly higher depression symptoms than non-attendees at baseline. Further, attending more parent sessions did not significantly impact either symptom measure.

DISCUSSION

Given the non-significant differences of parental attendance in this study, future studies could examine less resource demanding interventions for children with emotional difficulties. When the child is struggling with anxiety and depression, the parent's role in child's life could be vital for symptom amelioration. The challenge is finding effective, evidence-based methods to involve parents, to reduce child emotional difficulties and improve their quality of life.

CONCLUSIONS

In this preventive study, attendance in parent sessions has limited effect on parent-reported symptoms of child emotional difficulties.

Experimental evaluation of a neurophysiological intervention designed to increase student resilience: a pilot study

Social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions have shown promise for building resilience and protecting youth from adverse outcomes. This study reports on an experimental pilot evaluation of the Smart Brain Wise Heart SEL intervention during the 2021-2022 school year. Smart Brain Wise Heart (SBWH) uses a neurophysiological approach among ninth-grade students to evaluate the intervention's impact on youth resiliency, self-compassion, peer violence exposure, internalising disorders, and hyperactivity. Results did not indicate any significant universal changes in target outcomes. These null findings regarding universal impact may be explained by the unprecedented difficulty of implementing a school-based intervention amid ongoing COVID-19 restrictions and administrative issues. Despite these obstacles, students with lower academic achievement in the intervention condition scored significantly higher for resilience and self-compassion and lower on depressive symptoms than their peers in the comparison condition, even when controlling for baseline scores, sex, attachment (father, mother, peer), and exposure to adverse childhood experiences. Our findings suggest SBWH programming may have important implications for the trajectories of students exhibiting lower academic achievement, at a minimum, by significantly improving their emotional resilience, self-compassion, and depressive symptoms during a vital developmental stage. More research is urgently needed under optimal conditions to assess the universal implementation of the program.

Psychological Intimate Partner Violence, Insecure Attachment, and Parental Psychological Control from Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood

We examine if psychological intimate partner violence (pIPV) is predicted by parental psychological control (PPC) via insecure attachment. Our results analyzing longitudinal data from the Child Development Project show that PPC perceived at age 16 predicts insecure attachment at age 18, which then predicts pIPV at age 24. Moreover, the paths with attachment anxiety are consistently significant while ones with attachment avoidance are not. Further, all the paths are significant regardless of the gender of the adolescents and parents, which indicates that PPC is detrimental regardless of the gender of the adolescents or parents. Lastly, PPC perceived at age 16 does not directly predict pIPV at age 24, which suggests that social learning theory of aggression (Bandura, 1978) may not explain the association from PPC to pIPV. Our results suggest that research and practice would benefit by considering PPC as an antecedent of pIPV via insecure attachment from adolescence to emerging adulthood.

Parental Chronic Illness, Internalizing Problems in Young Adulthood and the Mediating Role of Adolescent Attachment to Parents: A Prospective Cohort Study

Background: Parental chronic illness is associated with an elevated risk for developing social-emotional and behavioral problems in children, in particular internalizing symptoms. This study aimed to investigate the associations between parental chronic illness when participants were adolescents and subsequent internalizing symptoms in young adulthood and whether adolescent attachment to parents or peers mediates these associations. Methods: The study used longitudinal survey data from the Youth and Mental Health Study, a cohort study including a representative sample of youth in central Norway assessed in the period from 1999 to 2000 (mean age 14.9 years) and in 2012 (mean age 27.2 years) (N = 1,266). The data consist of youth self-reports at both time points. Parental chronic illness was reported by the adolescents, quality of attachment was measured using the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA), and internalizing problems were assessed in young adulthood by using the Adult Self-Report (ASR). Data were analyzed using parallel mediation analyses, controlling for adolescent sex, parental socioeconomic status, and divorce. In addition, separate analyses were conducted for adolescent girls and boys. Results: The total longitudinal effect was significant for both maternal and paternal chronic illness on internalizing problems in young adulthood. The direct effect on internalizing problems was only significant for maternal chronic illness. Attachment to fathers partially mediated the relationship between maternal chronic illness in adolescence and internalizing symptoms in young adulthood, whereas attachment to both mothers and fathers fully mediated the relationship between paternal chronic illness in adolescence and internalizing symptoms in young adulthood. A separate analysis for girls and boys indicated that the results were only significant for girls. Parental chronic illness did not play a significant indirect effect via attachment to peers on internalizing problems. Conclusions: Identifying protective factors in the pathways between parental chronic illness and mental distress in children could guide measures that promote the well-being of the child and family. The study demonstrates the importance of targeting the entire family in chronic illness care.

The Influence of Father-Adolescent Attachment on Adolescents’ Internalizing Behavior Problems Within the Mongolian Family Context and the Analysis of Moderation Effects of Adolescents’ Gender

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of father-adolescent attachment on adolescents’ internalizing behavior problems within the Mongolian family context. Additionally, the moderation effect of adolescents’ gender was also examined.Methods: One hundred seventy four Mongolian adolescents who lived in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia participated in this study. The participants was 13 to 15 years old, and 69 out of 174 participants were boys. Consent was taken from participants and their parents. Instructions, consent forms, and questionnaires written in English were translated into Mongolian language. Participants responded to questionnaires that measured attachment to fathers, adolescents’ depression, and anxiety. Data were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression.Results: Results of this study showed that there was a significant difference between sons and daughters in the attachment to their fathers. Attachment security between sons and fathers was higher than that between daughters and fathers. Gender differences were also found in adolescents’ depression and anxiety. Levels of depression and anxiety in girls were significantly higher than in boys. In addition, attachment to fathers negatively predicted adolescents’ internalizing behavior problems including depression and anxiety. In particular, the moderation effect of adolescents’ gender was also significant. Specificially, girls’ attachment to fathers negatively predicted girls’ internalizing behavior problems, but no significant finding was reported in the relationship between fathers and boys.Conclusion: Findings suggested a protective role of adolescents’ attachment to fathers against adolescents’ internalizing behavior problems, and were discussed in terms of characteristics of parent-child relationship in Mongolian culture. The role of attachment on adolescents’ mental health was suggested.

The direct and indirect effect of attachment insecurity and negative parental behavior on anxiety in clinically anxious children: it's down to dad

BACKGROUND

Theoretically, insecure attachment and negative parental behaviors are risk factors for childhood anxiety. However, few empirical studies have examined their relative contribution including differences between mothers and fathers. To date, only one study has examined a mediational model including these factors, albeit in a nonclinical sample.

METHOD

This study ameliorates this limitation by investigating direct and indirect relations between maternal and paternal attachment and behaviors, and clinical anxiety in children (mean age 9.6 years). The study recruited 54 families. Anxiety symptoms were measured by the Spielberger State-trait Inventory for Children, attachment relationships by the Security Scale, and parental behaviors using the Rearing Behavior Questionnaire.

RESULTS

Neither insecure attachment relationship with mother nor maternal negative behavior was a significant predictor of anxiety in children. However, insecure attachment to father accounted for a significant proportion of variance in anxiety, and also fully mediated the relationship between paternal rejection and anxiety.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings highlight the importance of assessing the relative contribution of risk factors and the importance of including fathers when investigating the development and maintenance of childhood anxiety.

Perceived parental child rearing and attachment as predictors of anxiety and depressive disorder symptoms in children: The mediational role of attachment

The present study aimed to examine (a) the relative contribution of perceived parental child-rearing behaviors and attachment on anxiety and depressive symptoms, and (b) the role of attachment as a possible mediator of the association between parental rearing and anxiety and depression. A sample of 1002 children (aged 9-12 years) completed a booklet of self-report questionnaires measuring parental rearing behaviors, attachment towards peers, and DSM anxiety and depressive disorder symptoms. We found that parental aversiveness, parental neglect, and fearful/preoccupied attachment, each accounted for a significant amount of the variance in both anxiety and depressive symptoms. In addition, parental overcontrol was found to account for unique variance in anxiety whereas communication/warmth accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in depression. A relevant finding was that fearful/preoccupied attachment was found to mediate the association between parental rearing behaviors and both anxiety and depression. Parental rearing behaviors and attachment to peers may act as risk factors to the development and/or maintenance of anxiety and depressive symptomatology in children. Findings may contribute to outline preventive and/or treatment programs to prevent or reduce both clinical anxiety and depression during childhood.