Childhood Anxiety - The Role of Parenting: A Review

Abstract

This article intends to review the influences of parenting on the development of childhood anxiety disorders. The literature cites acceptance of anxious behaviours as a parental behaviour that mitigates childhood clinical anxiety. Alternatively, controlling parental behaviours, and modelling of controlling parental behaviours are associated with high clinical anxiety in children. Some parental climates that exaggerate a child’s psychological arousal may instill negative perceptions in the maintenance of an anxiety disorder. The article also looks into stress-mediated pathways that explain how an anxious familial climate may result in a child ‘inducing’ anxiety. Recent developmental psychopathology perspectives consider causal relationships in development, maintenance and persistence of anxiety disorders. Furthermore, the Craske model provides a real-life application of the developmental psychopathology perspective to explain the role of parenting in childhood anxiety.  Current limitations and research gaps in the literature pertaining to the influences of parenting in childhood anxiety disorders are also discussed.