Intergenerational Transmission of Anxiety and the Role of Parental Accommodation in Childhood Selective Mutism

• In Event: Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Topic - Developmental Psychopathology

Abstract

Alongside genetic influences, empirical and theoretical evidence suggests that environmental mechanisms contribute to parents passing anxiety symptoms to their children (e.g., Natsuaki et al., 2013; Eley et al., 2015). However, no research to date has explored the intergenerational transmission of anxiety symptoms from parents to children with selective mutism (SM), an anxiety disorder in which children fail to speak in certain social situations due to high anxiety (APA, 2013). Elevated rates of SM and social anxiety disorder have been found in parents of children with SM (e.g., Black & Uhde, 1995). Theoretical models suggest that parental accommodation of child anxiety (e.g., a parent speaking for their anxious child) may contribute to the development and maintenance of SM through a repeated avoidance cycle in which child silence and parental accommodation are simultaneously reinforced (Kotrba, 2015). In non-clinical populations, parental accommodation of child anxiety has been found to mediate the link between parent and child anxiety (e.g., Kerns et al., 2017). The purpose of this study is to explore a proposed pathway of anxiety transmission from parents to children with SM via parental accommodation. It is hypothesized that parental accommodation will mediate the link between parental anxiety and child SM. This study offers a model for understanding the intergenerational transmission of anxiety, as well as highlighting areas of intervention for reducing child anxiety.
Participants were 230 parents of a child with suspected or diagnosed SM. Children were ages 3 to 12 (M = 7.36, SD = 2.45); most were Caucasian (81.9%), non-Hispanic (87.8%), and female (67.4%). Parents completed questionnaires online, including the Selective Mutism Questionnaire (SMQ; Bergman, 2013), Multidimensional Anxiety Questionnaire (MAQ; Reynolds, 1999), and a modified version of the Family Accommodation Checklist and Interference Scale (FACLIS; Thompson-Hollands et al., 2014). Lower scores on the SMQ indicate more severe SM.
First, zero-order correlations were conducted (see Table 1). To investigate the hypothesis that parental accommodation mediates the link between parental anxiety and child SM, regression analyses were conducted in SPSS using the PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2013). Results (see Figure 1) showed that parent anxiety significantly predicted accommodation (β = .34, SE = .07, p < .001) and that accommodation significantly predicted child SM symptoms (β = -.44, SE = .07, p < .001). After accounting for parental accommodation, parental anxiety no longer served as a significant predictor of child SM symptoms, consistent with full mediation (β = -.12, SE = .07, p = .07). Using percentile bootstrap estimation with 1000 samples, the indirect coefficient was significant (β = -.15, SE = .04, 95% CI = -.23, -.08).
Greater parental anxiety symptoms predicted more frequent accommodation, and more frequent accommodation in turn predicted more severe child SM symptoms. Although cross-sectional, these findings are consistent with Kotrba’s (2015) theoretical model of SM, in which parental accommodation maintains and reinforces SM. Parental accommodation is high in pediatric anxiety populations overall, including families of children with SM (Thompson-Hollands et al., 2014). Thus, gaining further understanding of parental accommodation is crucial to helping children with SM and intervening appropriately with families.

Authors

• Kira Boneff, Eastern Michigan University
  Presenting Author

• Miriam Goldstein
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kylie A Quinn, Eastern Michigan University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Carol Freedman-Doan, Eastern Michigan University
  Non-Presenting Author