Peer-reviewed article
Examining the Relationship Between Anxiety in Parents and Child Well-Being
Arakshitha Viswanath ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This study looked at how parents' anxiety relates to their children's well-being in India. Sixteen Indian families (48 participants) took part online, with parents and children each completing questionnaires and children also doing an emotion recognition task. Parents' anxiety was linked to higher child anxiety and, unexpectedly, higher child self-esteem. The authors call for more research and stronger support systems for families coping with mental health challenges.
Key points
- Parental anxiety correlated positively with child anxiety and with child self-esteem.
- Parents' perception of their child's anxiety correlated positively with the child's own anxiety.
- There was no significant correlation between child anxiety and self-esteem, and only a weak correlation between child anxiety and emotion recognition.
- An external locus of control in children was associated with greater child anxiety, higher self-esteem and greater parental overprotection.
- The authors call for more research on parent and child well-being in India and stronger family support systems.
Limitations
The sample is very small (16 families) and the design is cross-sectional and correlational, so it cannot show that parental anxiety causes any child outcome. The abstract does not give effect sizes, child ages or how families were recruited.
Abstract
This study investigated the correlation between parental anxiety and child well-being (evaluated through anxiety, self-esteem, emotional recognition, and locus of control) within the Indian context. It employed a correlational cross-sectional design, with sixteen Indian families (N = 48). Participants completed the procedure through an online meeting with the researcher. Parents filled four self-report questionnaires: the GAD-7, Parent Stress Scale, Parental Overprotection Measure, and the SCAS-Parent version. Children filled the SCAS-Child, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale, and an emotion recognition task. The Spearman’s rank-order method was used to analyze ten primary correlations. Principal findings revealed that parental anxiety correlated positively with child anxiety and self-esteem; parental perception of child anxiety also correlated positively with child anxiety. There was no significant correlation between child anxiety and self-esteem, and a weak correlation between child anxiety and emotion recognition. Further, an external locus of control in children was associated with greater child anxiety, higher self-esteem, and greater parental overprotection. These findings highlight the need for further research on parent and child well-being in the Indian context, while focusing on developing stronger support systems to help families cope with mental health challenges.