Parental Expressions of Anxiety and Child Temperament in Toddlerhood Jointly Predict Preschoolers’ Avoidance of Novelty

Figures & data

TABLE 1 Sociodemographic Characteristics of the Sample

		Mothers	Fathers
Age M (SD)		36.07 (4.18)	39.09 (5.40)
Dutch origin		90.99%	95.46%
Educational Level^a M (SD)		7.06 (1.14)	6.65 (1.52)
Professional Level^b M (SD)		8.70 (2.16)	8.30 (2.53)
Current Working Status (%)	HK	4.95	2.02
	PT	78.22	29.29
	FT	9.90	65.66

Note: HK = housekeeper; PT = part-time; FT = full-time.

^a8-point scale from 1 (primary education) to 8 (university).

^b11-point scale from 1 (manual labor for which no education is required) to 11 (labor requiring a university degree).

FIGURE 1 Time flow of the current study. Mothers and fathers of each participating child joined the lab visit at each measurement point. At 2.5 and 4.5 years measurement, there was also a home visit. SR = Social referencing; BI = behavioral inhibition.

TABLE 2 Descriptive Statistics for the Outcomes and Predictors in Multilevel Regressions

	N	M	SD	Minimum	Maximum
Child Fear at 1 Year	417	2.01	0.93	1.00	4.88
Child Fear at 2.5 Years	431	2.58	0.68	1.00	5.00
Child fear at 4.5 Years	443	2.27	0.53	1.00	4.14
Child Avoidance at 1 Year	417	1.68	0.59	1.00	4.00
Child Avoidance at 2.5 Years	432	2.64	0.65	1.00	5.00
Child Avoidance at 4.5 Years	443	1.82	0.61	1.00	4.33
Child Behavioral Inhibition at 1 Year	436	−0.03	0.38	−0.69	1.11
Child Behavioral Inhibition at 2.5 Years	444	0.02	0.44	−1.01	1.36
Parental Expressions of Anxiety at 1 Year	417	2.11	0.56	1.00	4.00
Parental Expressions of Anxiety at 2.5 Years	432	3.24	0.37	1.00	4.00
Parental Expressions of Anxiety at 4.5 Years	443	3.17	0.27	1.88	4.00
Parental Social Anxiety Disorder Severity	222	4.51	5.54	0.00	23.00

TABLE 3 Raw Correlations Between the Outcomes and Predictors in Multilevel Regressions

Parent		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Mother	1. Child fear at 1 year		.10	.07	.58**	.11	.17	.26**	−.12	−.09	.02
	2. Child fear at 2.5 years	.12		.26**	.12	.70**	.11	.13	.08	−.06	.10
	3. Child fear at 4.5 years	.23*	.21*		.08	.16	.38**	0.16	.16	.06	.10
	4. Child avoidance at 1 year	.52**	−.16	.04		.03	.13	.30**	.09	.10	.09
	5. Child avoidance at 2.5 years	.12	.60**	.25**	−.01		.19*	.07	−.04	−.10	.09
	6. Child avoidance at 4.5 years	.00	.17	.26**	−.02	.01		−.04	−.01	−.21*	.03
	7. Parental expressions of anxiety at 1 year	.27**	.06	.07	.07	.05	.00		.21*	.20*	.20*
	8. Parental expressions of anxiety at 2.5 years	.09	.18	.13	−.07	.19*	.05	.05		.14	.21*
	9. Parental expressions of anxiety at 4.5 years	.06	.12	−.05	−.10	.11	−.15	.27**	.36**		.11
	10. Parental social anxiety disorder severity	.13	.16	.19	−.02	.17	.13	.25*	.29**	.22*
Father	1. Child fear at 1 year		.10	−.06	.55**	.10	.11	.12	−.08	.09	−.02
	2. Child fear at 2.5 years	.04		.24*	.05	.80**	.26**	.01	−.07	−.22*	.04
	3. Child fear at 4.5 years	−.07	.18		.04	.22*	.51**	−.02	−.09	−.09	−.07
	4. Child avoidance at 1 year	.23*	−.02	−.08		−.02	.09	.12	.03	.05	−.01
	5. Child avoidance at 2.5 years	.01	.60**	.06	.02		.21*	−.09	−.16	−.23*	−.03
	6. Child avoidance at 4.5 years	.04	.15	.23*	.07	.09		.10	.05	−.16	−.08
	7. Parental expressions of anxiety at 1 year	.16	.08	.10	.02	−.11	.05		.27**	.18	.10
	8. Parental expressions of anxiety at 2.5 years	−.05	−.02	−.14	.07	−.09	.13	.33**		.21*	.11
	9. Parental expressions of anxiety at 4.5 years	−.06	.04	−.07	.12	.08	−.15	.05	.39**		−.06
	10. Parental social anxiety disorder severity	.08	.11	−.01	.04	.12	.07	.03	.19*	.08

Note: The correlations are presented separately per parent and task. The correlations with mothers and fathers appear at the top and at the bottom respectively. The correlations in the social SR task are presented below the diagonal, whereas the correlations in the nonsocial SR task appear above the diagonal. SR = social referencing.

*p ≤ .05. ** p ≤ .01.

TABLE 4 Multilevel Regressions of Child Fear and Avoidance at 4.5 Years on Parental Expressions of Anxiety at 1, 2.5, and 4.5 Years

	Fear					Avoidance
	95% Confidence Interval					95% Confidence Interval
Parameter	β	SE	p	Lower Bound	Upper Bound	β	SE	p	Lower Bound	Upper Bound
Intercept	0.11	0.08	.174	−0.05	0.27	−0.65	0.09	< .001	−0.82	−0.48
Order of Visits (0: first visiting parent, 1: second visiting parent)	0.24	0.06	< .001	0.12	0.36	0.13	0.06	.035	0.01	0.24
Child Baseline Negativity (0: no negativity, 1: some negativity)	0.52	0.22	.020	0.08	0.96	0.82	0.22	.002	0.39	1.25
Parent Gender (0: mothers, 1: fathers)	0.12	0.06	.058	0.00	0.24	0.10	0.06	.112	−0.02	0.22
Task (0: social, 1: nonsocial)	−0.43	0.11	< .001	−0.66	−0.21	1.25	0.09	< .001	1.08	1.43
Child Gender (0: girls, 1: boys)	−0.19	0.09	.027	−0.36	−0.02	−0.24	0.09	.006	−0.42	−0.07
Child Behavioral Inhibition	0.16	0.04	< .001	0.08	0.25	0.12	0.04	.010	0.03	0.20
Parent Social Anxiety Severity	0.03	0.04	.408	−0.04	0.10	0.01	0.04	.827	−0.07	0.08
Parent social Anxiety Severity × Child Behavioral Inhibition	0.08	0.04	.034	0.01	0.15
Parental Expressions of Anxiety at 1 Year	0.07	0.04	.086	−0.01	0.15	0.03	0.04	.484	−0.05	0.11
Parental Expressions of Anxiety at 2.5 Years	0.08	0.05	.115	−0.02	0.18	0.08	0.04	.037	0.01	0.16
Parental Expressions of Anxiety at 4.5 Years	−0.04	0.04	.312	−0.11	0.04	−0.11	0.04	.004	−0.18	−0.03
Parental Expressions of Anxiety at 2.5 Years × Child Behavioral Inhibition						0.07	0.04	.048	0.00	0.14
Parent Gender × Parental Expressions of Anxiety at 2.5 Years	−0.20	0.07	.003	−0.33	−0.07

Note: N = 106. p ≤ .05 is indicated in bold.

FIGURE 2 Plot of the interaction between parental social anxiety severity and behavioral inhibition (BI) in toddlerhood in the fear model (on the left), and between parental expressions of anxiety at 2.5 years (y) and child BI in the avoidance model (on the right). Moderate, low, and high levels of infant BI were set to mean, 1 SD below the mean, and 1 SD above the mean, respectively. More severe forms of parental social anxiety were related to more fear only in high BI children (z > 1.05). More expressed anxiety at 2.5 years from parents predicted more avoidance in moderate-to-high BI children (z > .07).

TABLE 5 Multilevel Regressions of Change in Child Fear and Avoidance from Infancy to Childhood on Parental Expressions of Anxiety at 1 Year and Child Behavioral Inhibition at 1 Year

	Fear					Avoidance
	95% Confidence Interval					95% Confidence Interval
Parameter	β	SE	p	Lower Bound	Upper Bound	β	SE	p	Lower Bound	Upper Bound
Intercept	.12	.07	.119	−.03	.26	−.63	.08	< .001	−.79	−.47
Time (0: toddlerhood–infancy vs. childhood–toddlerhood)	−.15	.06	.014	−.27	−.03	.27	.07	< .001	.13	.42
Parent Gender (0: mothers, 1: fathers)	.03	.04	.458	−.05	.12	.09	.04	.034	.01	.18
Task (0: social, 1: nonsocial)	.10	.08	.253	−.07	.26	.94	.07	< .001	.79	1.08
Child Gender (0: girls, 1: boys)	−.14	.07	.043	−.28	<.01	−.18	.07	.016	−.32	−.03
Child Behavioral Inhibition at 1 Year	−.01	.04	.847	−.08	.06	−.03	.04	.453	−.10	.05
Parental Prenatal Social Anxiety Severity	.07	.03	.015	.01	.12	.05	.03	.052	.00	.11
Parental Expressions of Anxiety at 1 Year	−.04	.05	.422	−.13	.05	.00	.03	.886	−.05	.06
Time × Parental Expressions of Anxiety at 1 Year	.11	.06	.042	.00	.22

Note: N = 106. p ≤ .05 is indicated in bold.