The Relation between Parental Beliefs about Negative Emotions, Coping Socialization, and Child Anxiety in a Nonclinical Sample

Abstract

The present study examined parents' beliefs about anxiety and emotion-related parenting styles (emotion coaching and parental rejection of emotion) as they related to child anxiety and coping socialization. Coping socialization also was explored as a mediator of the relation between parent cognitions and child anxiety. Participants included parents (n = 58) of children aged 3 to 12 years, in a nonclinical sample. Parents completed online questionnaires assessing their beliefs about emotions, coping socialization, and anxiety symptoms. Results indicated that parents who reported low emotion coaching and high parental beliefs about anxiety had children with greater anxiety, regardless of parent anxiety. Greater emotion coaching predicted more supportive coping socialization, while greater parental rejection of emotion predicted more unsupportive coping socialization. Unsupportive coping socialization mediated the relation between parental rejection of emotion and levels of child anxiety, but not when accounting for parent anxiety. Implications for clinical interventions and parenting programmes are discussed.