ارتباط عوامل پدر و مادر و اضطراب خصلتی: نقش واسطه ای خطاهای شناختی و فراشناختی

Research examining parenting factors in the development of anxiety has focused largely on the concepts of parental warmth and overcontrolling or intrusive parenting, This study investigated the relationship between these factors, and also parental discipline style and anxiety using self-report methodology with a sample of 16–18 year olds. In order to try to explain the relationship between parenting and anxiety, measures of cognition were also included. A multiple regression was conducted including all parenting factors as predictors of trait anxiety. The regression was a modest fit (R2 = 22%) and the model was significant (F(4, 141) = 9.90, p < 0.0001). Only the effect of Over-reactivity was significant, (t = 3.72, p < 0.0001). Furthermore, Over-reactive discipline was significantly associated with increased cognitive distortions (r = 0.361 p < 0.0001) and metacognition (r = 0.396 p < 0.0001). Both cognitive distortions and metacognition were found to partially mediate the relationship between discipline style and trait anxiety. The implications of these findings and areas for future research are discussed.

Parenting has been the focus of much of the research into the development of childhood anxiety disorders and features prominently in many of the models proposed to explain their development in childhood and adolescence (e.g., Chorpita & Barlow, 1998; Manassis & Bradley, 1994; Rubin & Mills, 1991). This focus has arisen, in part, because of the evidence that anxiety is aggregated through families. Parents of clinically anxious children are more than twice as likely as parents of control children to have a diagnosable anxiety disorder. What is more, parents of children with externalizing problems have rates of anxiety disorder closer to that of parents of controls, indicating the specific heritability of anxiety, (Last, Hersen, Kazdin, Orvaschel, & Perrin, 1991). The children of anxiety disordered parents have also been found to have significantly higher rates of anxiety disorders, with these children being reported to be seven times more likely to receive a diagnosis, (Turner, Beidel, & Costello, 1987). A review of behavioral genetics research employing twin samples indicates clearly that there is a genetic influence on childhood anxiety. However, it accounts for approximately one third of the variance, (Eley, 2001). The review also concluded that shared environment and individual specific factors contribute significantly to the heritability of anxiety in childhood and adolescence. As parents are the primary influence on a child's environment, much of the research investigating the development of childhood anxiety has focused on parenting styles and behaviors.

These findings suggest that parental discipline styles characterized by harsh, punitive, or inconsistent discipline are associated with increased anxiety. Care and control in parenting explained a small proportion of the variance, but discipline style was the only significant predictor, suggesting the need for a shift in research focus. Fortuitously, treatments that tackle harsh and inconsistent parental discipline are already available, and this also offers a unique opportunity to experimentally investigate this relationship further. The finding that a negative cognitive style mediates the relationship found between discipline style and anxiety aids understanding of why parenting is important in the development of anxiety. It also provides preliminary empirical support for theoretical models of anxiety that posit that the relationship between suboptimal parenting and trait anxiety is explained by a negative cognitive style.