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Maternal expectations and attributions about coping in anxious children
E Kortlander1, P C Kendall, S M Panichelli-Mindel
1Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA.
Journal of Anxiety Disorders
|May 1, 1997
Summary
Mothers of children with anxiety disorders expect less coping ability compared to mothers of typically developing children. These maternal expectations may contribute to maintaining anxious behaviors.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
Background:
- Anxiety disorders in children are a significant concern.
- Understanding maternal factors influencing child anxiety is crucial.
- Maternal expectations and attributions play a role in child development and behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine maternal expectations and attributions for child coping in stressful situations.
- To compare these maternal perceptions between children with anxiety disorders and normal controls.
- To explore the relationship between maternal expectations and child coping abilities.
Main Methods:
- Compared mothers of children meeting DSM III-R criteria for an Anxiety Disorder (AD) with mothers of normal control (NC) children.
- Assessed maternal expectations for general and specific coping behaviors.
- Investigated maternal attributions of causality for child coping.
Main Results:
- Mothers of AD children had lower expectations for their child's general and specific coping abilities compared to mothers of NC children.
- Maternal expectations focused on coping, not threat perception, differentiated the groups.
- Mothers of AD children showed fewer causal distinctions in attributions for coping.
Conclusions:
- Maternal expectations for lower coping ability in anxious children appear to reflect the children's actual abilities.
- These lowered expectations may be linked to protective parenting behaviors.
- Maternal expectations and parenting patterns might inadvertently maintain childhood anxiety.