Associations Between Maternal Anxiety, Parenting Behavior, and Negative Emotionality in Toddlers

• In Event: Advances in the Study of Parenting and Infant Emotional Development: Merging Modern and Traditional Measures

Abstract

Ecological frameworks situate the child within a complex system of contexts that shape and influence development. Consistent with this framework, substantial evidence supports multiple influences on children’s risk for internalizing disorders (Karevold et al. 2009). Among the most robust predictors of internalizing symptoms is children’s negative emotionality, a temperamental construct characterized by irritability and negative mood (Sanson et al. 2004). Hence, negative emotionality in toddlers can be used as a proxy for risk of future internalizing symptoms (van der Bruggen et al., 2010). Maternal anxiety is predictive of both risk for internalizing behaviors (Turner et al., 1987; Elay et a., 2003) and negative emotionality (Prenoveau et al., 2017), further supporting the use of negative emotionality as an early risk factor for internalizing disorders.

Studies examining environmental factors such as parenting behavior to children’s negative emotionality report mixed findings (Hurrell et al.,2015; Wood et al., 2003). These studies, however, used clinical samples of children with anxiety disorders or relied on parent self-reports of parenting behavior. Few studies have examined the parenting behaviors of anxious mothers using observational assessments to better understand the associations between parenting, maternal anxiety, and toddler negative emotionality. In the current study we examine maternal factors that predict toddler negative emotionality which may portend future emergence of internalizing symptomology.

Methods: The current study examines cross-sectional associations between maternal anxiety, parenting behavior, and toddler negative affect. The sample includes 299 mother-toddler dyads. Temperament is assessed using the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ; Putnam, Gartstein, & Rothbart, 2006) short form. Maternal anxiety was assessed using the 2-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Screener (GAD-2, Kroenke et al., 2007), using a standard cutoff indicative of a clinical anxiety disorder. Parenting behavior was assessed using observational protocols (NICHD SECCYD) with a 10-minute Mother/Child dyadic interaction. Coders rated parenting behaviors on a 7-point scale (where 1 = not at all characteristic and 7 = very characteristic). Maternal sensitivity was created as the mean of the global sensitivity, detachment (reversed), stimulation of development, and positive regard, with higher scores indicating greater sensitivity. Coders were blind to all other information regarding participants. We dichotomized maternal sensitivity at <3 vs 3 or more.

Results: As presented in Table 1, 43% of target children were female. Non-Hispanic White families made up 46% of the sample while the remaining participants endorsed their ethnicity as non-Hispanic black (35%) and “other” (19%). GAD score of 3 or more were seen in 11% of mothers. We next ran linear regression models to examine the associations between maternal anxiety and sensitivity with child negative affect as the outcome. Our findings suggest that in mothers with low anxiety, the level of negative affect is not associated with sensitive parenting (Figure 1). However, in mothers with high anxiety, the level of negative affect is inversely associated with sensitive parenting behavior such that greater maternal sensitivity is related to lower negative affect in toddlers. These associations will be further explored in multivariate models with consideration for mediation and moderation. Implications for early childhood policy will be discussed.

Authors

• Bharathi Jayanthi Zvara, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Presenting Author

• Sarah Keim, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rebecca R. Andridge, The Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sarah Anderson, The Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author