Intergenerational anxiety symptom networks: A community-based network analysis of parent-child dyads and parental...

The symptom-level of intergenerational transmission of anxiety within large, non-clinical community samples remains underinvestigated. This study employed network analysis to investigate the structure of parent-child anxiety symptom networks, identify key symptoms connecting generations, and compare these networks based on parental gender.

A total of 4633 parent-child dyads were included. Parent-child anxiety symptom networks were constructed using network analysis. Central and bridge symptoms were identified using Expected Influence and Bridge Expected Influence (BEI) indices, respectively. The network comparison test was used to compare network differences between children and parents, as well as between fathers and mothers.

Anxiety network structures were significantly different between children and their parents (all P < 0.05). In the overall parent-child network, parental "uncontrollable worry" and the children's "feeling afraid" were the strongest bridges. In the father-child network, paternal "irritability" and child's "feeling afraid" were the key parental bridges, while in the mother-child network, maternal "uncontrollable worry" and the children's "irritability" were the primary connectors. The association between paternal "restlessness" and boys' "trouble relaxing" was significantly stronger than that with girls' (P = 0.010).

Children and parents exhibit fundamentally distinct anxiety symptom network structures, with parental gender significantly influencing intergenerational bridge symptom patterns. These findings underscore bidirectional and gender-specific intergenerational anxiety interactions. The identified bridge symptoms offer crucial targets for tailored interventions to disrupt cycles of family anxiety.