The Role of Parental Responsibility in Relation to the Familial Link of Anxiety

Abstract

Anxiety has a strong familial link in which parent anxiety increases the risk for child anxiety. Behavioral inhibition (BI) is also a risk factor for the development of anxiety, and parent factors (i.e., overprotection, overcontrol) exacerbate this risk. Studies examining the link between parent and child anxiety have mainly focused on genetics and childrearing styles. Few studies have explored the role of coparenting, and none have specifically studied parental responsibility, which refers to parents’ degree of involvement in caregiving activities. Limited studies have also incorporated both parents’ anxiety and child anxiety within the same model to capture a comprehensive family approach. This study utilized hierarchical regression to investigate the association between parent and child anxiety severity and how parental responsibility may play a role in the association. Post-hoc analyses were also conducted to further explore the relationships discovered between main variables (parent anxiety severity, child anxiety severity, parental responsibility). This cross-sectional secondary data analysis utilized baseline data from a randomized controlled trial comparing two treatments for young children high in BI, the Turtle Program and Cool Little Kids. The full sample consisted of 151 children and their primary parents and coparents. The final study sample consisted of 81 families with data on parental responsibility. Coparent anxiety was directly linked with child anxiety, whereas primary parent anxiety was not, suggesting the importance of considering both parents’ anxiety when examining the association between parent and child anxiety. Greater involvement in caregiving activities by both parents was also associated with lower child anxiety severity, suggesting that having more balance between parents in the amount of time they spend in caregiving activities may be an important factor for child anxiety severity. Based on the study, the role of coparent anxiety and balance in parental responsibility may be important to consider when assessing and treating families with children elevated in BI. Future studies should consider incorporating additional family, coparenting, and parenting factors to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how balance in parental responsibility may play a role in the link between parent and child anxiety.