Poster #60 - Parental concern over mistakes and criticism moderate the relation between dysregulated fear and child anxiety

• In Event: 2-163 - Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

Dysregulated fear (DF) in children is defined as the inability to appropriately match fear response to the typical amount of fear the context elicits (Buss, 2011). Children high in DF display high fear reactions in low-threat contexts, increasing their risk for the development of social anxiety (Buss, 2011; Buss et al., 2013). Although DF is biologically based, not every child displaying DF develops anxiety, pointing to the variability in the trajectory of DF. Existing literature supports theory that certain parenting variables are associated with increased child anxiety risk (Moore, Whaley, & Sigman, 2004). Specifically, maternal characteristics like perfectionism have been linked with later psychopathology in children (Cook & Kearney, 2014). Little is known about the role maternal perfectionistic characteristics play in the development of child social and generalized anxiety for children who have a biological predisposition to anxiety (i.e., DF). The current study examined how maternal perfectionistic tendencies (e.g., concern over mistakes, criticism) related to child anxiety in the context of DF.
Participants were 145 mothers who participated in a laboratory visit when their toddlers were 2-years-old (Time 1) and then again at age 5 years (Time 2). At Time 1, mothers-child dyads participated in two low-threat novelty episodes (puppet show, clown). Distress and shyness behaviors were coded similarly to previous studies (Buss, 2011) and combined into a composite to yield the final DF variable. At Time 2, mothers reported on their own perfectionism via the Concern over Mistakes and Parental Criticism subscales of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS; Frost et al., 1990). Mothers also reported on their child’s anxiety via the Generalized Anxiety and Social Anxiety subscales of the Preschool Anxiety Scale (PAS; Spence & Rapee, 1999).
Maternal criticism significantly moderated the relation between child DF and child generalized anxiety (b= -.29, p =.02): at high levels of parental experienced criticism, greater child dysregulated fear was related to lower generalized anxiety (b = -.38, p = .05, see Figure 1). Maternal concern over mistakes significantly moderated the relation between child DF and child social anxiety (b = -.73, p = .02), such that at lower levels of concerns over mistakes, higher child DF related to higher social anxiety (b = 1.04, p = .00, see Figure 2).
Results suggest that mothers’ experiences of high levels of criticism may protect against generalized anxiety when their children exhibit high DF. Experiencing criticism in their own family may influence mothers to parent their children in a different way from the way they were raised. Additionally, mothers who have little concern over their own mistakes may actually increase child anxiety risk. Mothers may be not cautious enough in parenting these at-risk children who may need more meticulous parenting. This points to the need for “goodness-of-fit” or balance in parenting by matching the needs of each individual child (Chess & Thomas, 1991). Intervention efforts can target mothers with perfectionism characteristics to find a more appropriate “goodness-of-fit” for at-risk children, ultimately decreasing anxiety risk.

Authors

• Sydney Marie Risley, Miami University
  Presenting Author

• Lauren Jones, Miami University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elizabeth J Kiel, Miami University
  Non-Presenting Author