Relationship between parental anxiety and child anxiety sensitivity in a nonclinical sample.

Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is defined as the fear of anxiety-related sensations due to the belief that these sensations could lead to harmful physical, psychological or social consequences. Some authors examined the contribution of parental factors to child's AS. However, little is known about the relation between parental anxiety and child’s AS, particularly in non-clinical samples. AS being an important risk factor in anxiety, it seems important to understand how AS develops without existing psychopathology in order to act preventively. Moreover, another concern is the little consideration of father, most studies having investigated mother's contribution.
This study examined the contribution of mothers’ and fathers’ anxiety to the development of four dimensions of AS in children: physical concerns, mental incapacity concerns, social concerns and losing control concerns.
Our sample included 200 non-clinical Belgian children (105 girls) aged 9 to 13 years, 200 mothers and 200 fathers. Children completed the Children Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI) whereas parents completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI).
The regression analysis revealed that mother and father’s anxiety significantly predicted child’s AS, but in a different way. Mother’s anxiety was positively associated with physical concerns (b = .06, p = .015) and mental incapacity concerns (b = .03, p = .020). Father’s anxiety was negatively associated with physical concerns (b = -.06, p = .018) and losing control concerns (b = -.03, p = .020).
Women appear to express their anxiety with more intensity and to be more concerned with the unpleasant emotional, physical, and mental experiences of anxiety while men seem to express their anxiety with less intensity and more control. Without existing pathology, mothers and fathers could thus propose a different model of expression of anxiety symptoms. These gender differences, when observed by children, could lead different beliefs about consequences of anxiety-related sensations.