Parental Anxiety and Child Psychopathology: The Role of the Family Environment

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dc.contributor.authorRyan, Sarah M.en
dc.contributor.committeechairOllendick, Thomas H.en
dc.contributor.committeememberWhite, Susan W.en
dc.contributor.committeememberKim-Spoon, Jungmeenen
dc.contributor.departmentPsychologyen
dc.date.accessioned2017-06-13T19:43:54Zen
dc.date.adate2016-07-01en
dc.date.available2017-06-13T19:43:54Zen
dc.date.issued2016-04-25en
dc.date.rdate2016-07-01en
dc.date.sdate2016-05-04en
dc.description.abstractA sizeable proportion of adults suffer from an anxiety disorder and many of those adults are parents. Parental anxiety, as well as dysfunctional family environment, contributes to both internalizing and externalizing problems in children. Specifically, family control, conflict, and cohesion have been shown to predict child internalizing and externalizing symptoms to varying degrees. However, few studies have examined the association between all three components in the same study: parental psychopathology, family environment, and child outcomes. The current study tested the relationships among these variables in a sample of 189 children (66% male, 93% Caucasian, mean age = 10.34 years). Family conflict predicted child externalizing symptoms for both mothers and fathers, and mediated the relationship between maternal anxiety and child externalizing symptoms. Family cohesion predicted child externalizing problems based on maternal report and mediated the relationship between maternal anxiety and child externalizing symptoms. Furthermore, family cohesion moderated the relationship between maternal anxiety and child internalizing symptoms. These findings provide preliminary support for the role of the family environment in the relationship between parental anxiety and child psychopathology, and these environmental variables may be important targets of intervention in families with elevated parental anxiety.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.identifier.otheretd-05042016-155125en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-05042016-155125/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/78097en
dc.language.isoen_USen
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectparental anxietyen
dc.subjectfamily environmenten
dc.subjectchild internalizing symptomsen
dc.subjectchild externalizing symptomsen
dc.titleParental Anxiety and Child Psychopathology: The Role of the Family Environmenten
dc.typeThesisen
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten
thesis.degree.disciplinePsychologyen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

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