Publication Date

2025

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Pittman, Laura

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Psychology

Abstract

The present study contributes to the current literature by examining specific parenting pathways (i.e., maternal hostility, overreactivity, laxness, warmth) that may be contributing to the transmission risk of anxiety symptoms from parent to child. Additionally, understanding these pathways during a context of high stress created by the COVID-19 pandemic may be particularly informative. Further, additional analysis explored the reverse direction, examining how child anxiety symptoms might influence parenting behaviors, providing a view of the bidirectional relationship between parent and child anxiety within the context of high stress. The survey data for this study were collected from a longitudinal study titled Families in Rapid and Stressful Transition (FIRST) Study (Shelleby et al., 2022). The time points used in this study were Time 1 (April 2020), 7 (July 2020), and 8 (October 2020). Time 1 consisted of 308 participants, Time 7 consisted of 187 participants, and Time 8 consisted of 167 participants. A path model, using Full Information Maximum Likelihood (FIML) to address missing data, was utilized to explore the indirect pathways from Time 1 (T1) maternal anxiety symptoms to Time 8 (T8) child anxiety symptoms through Time 7 (T7) parenting behaviors (i.e., hostility, overreactivity, laxness, warmth). Results indicated a positive association between T1 maternal anxiety and T8 child anxiety (b = 0.15, p = 0.04). When examined separately, laxness, overreactivity, and warmth were not significant pathways, while hostility was a marginally significant pathway (b = 0.03, p = 0.059). When all parenting behaviors were considered simultaneously, no significant pathways emerged. Furthermore, T1 child anxiety did not significantly predict T8 maternal anxiety, and there were no significant pathways through any T7 parenting behaviors, either individually or collectively. Implications and conclusions based on findings are discussed.

Extent

114 pages

Language

en

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

Download

Share

COinS