Rosário Mendes
Portugal
Research Article
Causal Factors of Anxiety Symptoms in Children
Author(s): Filomena Valadao Dias, Juliana Álvares Duarte Bonini Campos, Raquel V. Oliveira, Rosário Mendes, Isabel Leal and Joao MarocoFilomena Valadao Dias, Juliana Álvares Duarte Bonini Campos, Raquel V. Oliveira, Rosário Mendes, Isabel Leal and Joao Maroco
Aim: The present work aimed to investigate the impact of the child’s cognitions associated with ambiguous stimuli that refer to anxiety, both parents’ fears and anxiety, and parents’ attributions to the child’s interpretations of ambiguous stimuli on child anxiety. The influence of parental modelling on child’s cognitions was also analyzed. Method: The final sample was composed of 111 children (62 boys; 49 girls) with ages between 10 and 11 years (M = 10.6, SD = 0.5) from a community population, and both their parents. The variables identified as most significant were included in a predictive model of anxiety. Results: Results revealed the children’s thoughts (positive and negative) related to ambiguous stimuli that describe anxiety situations. Parents’ fears and mothers’ anxiety significantly predict childre.. View More»