Adversity and Childhood Anxiety: Identifying Parental and Affective Mechanisms

Introduction: The present investigation examined direct and indirect effects of contextual adversity on childhood anxiety symptom severity through parental emotion socialization and child emotion dysregulation. It was hypothesized that: 1) contextual adversity would be indirectly associated with emotion dysregulation through unsupportive emotion socialization; and 2) unsupportive emotion socialization would be indirectly associated with child anxiety symptom severity through child emotion dysregulation. Method: Sixty-two children ages 8 – 12 years (Mage = 10.3 years, SD = 1.2; 40.3% female; 45.2% racial/ethnic minority) and their mothers (Mage = 42.7 years, SD = 6.6; 48.4% racial/ethnic minority) completed a one-session, multi-informant (child, mother), multimethod (questionnaires, task-based state measures, behavioral observations) battery across three structured dyadic interaction tasks and a child speech task. Results: Unsupportive maternal emotion socialization did not mediate the relationship between contextual adversity and child emotion dysregulation; this finding was consistent across child-report, mother-report, task-based state measures, and observational data. Child emotion dysregulation mediated the relationship between unsupportive maternal emotion socialization and child anxiety symptom severity; this finding was consistent across child- and mother-report measures, but not task-based state measures or observational data. Discussion: Unsupportive parental emotion socialization practices contribute to child emotion dysregulation, which in turn places children at risk for anxiety problems. The present study’s findings have implications for personalized prevention and treatment efforts that target parental practices and emotion regulation skills among clinically anxious youth. Future studies should assess the impact of specific facets of contextual adversity on parental and affective mechanisms of childhood anxiety.