Protecting or Perpetuating? The Relationship Between Overprotective Parenting, Parental Anxiety and Child Anxiety in Toddlers

Behavioural inhibition gives children a higher risk of developing anxiety disorders, resulting in problems later in life and high mental healthcare costs. Understanding what mechanisms underly this development could reduce mental health distress and these costs. In school-aged children, parental anxiety is associated with child anxiety through social learning. Additionally, anxious parents often have a threat bias, resulting in overprotective behaviour. This overprotective behaviour prevents a child from learning to cope with developmentally appropriate challenges, resulting in anxiety. Little research has been done on this relationship for toddlers. Therefore, it was hypothesized that increased parental anxiety is associated with increased child anxiety in toddlers. Additionally, overprotection was expected to be a mediator in this relationship. Data was part of a larger research project, testing the effect of Cool Little Kids, a parent group training, on anxiety in toddlers with...Show moreBehavioural inhibition gives children a higher risk of developing anxiety disorders, resulting in problems later in life and high mental healthcare costs. Understanding what mechanisms underly this development could reduce mental health distress and these costs. In school-aged children, parental anxiety is associated with child anxiety through social learning. Additionally, anxious parents often have a threat bias, resulting in overprotective behaviour. This overprotective behaviour prevents a child from learning to cope with developmentally appropriate challenges, resulting in anxiety. Little research has been done on this relationship for toddlers. Therefore, it was hypothesized that increased parental anxiety is associated with increased child anxiety in toddlers. Additionally, overprotection was expected to be a mediator in this relationship. Data was part of a larger research project, testing the effect of Cool Little Kids, a parent group training, on anxiety in toddlers with behavioural inhibition. Parents were asked to fill in questionnaires about parental anxiety, overprotection and child anxiety. Data from 156 participants at the 1-year follow-up was used for this study. A mediation analysis was conducted for parental anxiety, overprotection and child anxiety. Results showed that parental anxiety was positively associated with child anxiety in toddlers (β = 0.280, 95% CI [0.122, 0.541]), and positively associated with overprotection (β = 0.118, 95% CI [0.016, 0.215]),. Overprotection was not associated with child anxiety (β = 0.211, 95% CI [-0.123, 0.541]). Post hoc analyses showed no difference between the older (5-6 years old) and younger age group (3-4 years old) in the aforementioned relations. This could be because young children still need guidance from their parents, so overprotective behaviour is still developmentally appropriate for toddlers. Limitations to this study were that 41 out of 156 cases were missing and that results were only based on parent information. This paper helps to better understand the influence of parental anxiety and overprotection on the development of anxiety in behaviourally inhibited toddlers. Treatment for these children should not only focus on the child, but also on parental anxiety, due to its influence. Future studies could investigate the interaction between age of the child, need for independence and overprotection.Show less

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Protecting or Perpetuating? The Relationship Between Overprotective Parenting, Parental Anxiety and Child Anxiety in Toddlers