The inheritance of anxiety appears to be transmitted by a gender-specific mother-to-daughter
father-to-son pattern, according to a new study. New findings
indicate that children learn anxiety behavior from their parents.
According to clinical psychologist Barbara Pavlova from the Department of Psychiatry at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, one of the study's researchers, the transmission of anxiety to children can be prevented. Treating parental anxiety is important not only for their own health
but also for the health of their children. This is especially true if the parent and child
are of the same gender. This work was published in the JAMA Network Open on 12
July 2022. Anxiety disorders run in families
, both genes and environment are thought to be involved, but
little is known about sex-specific inheritance. This study was conducted with 203 girls and 195
boys and their parents. The mean age of the children is 11, and it is known that they have a familial risk for mood disorders. Anxiety disorder in parents of the same
sex and anxiety disorder in the child
were statistically high
(OR 1.51 versus 2.85) when compared to those of the opposite sex. The absence of anxiety in the same-sex parent
resulted in a very low level of anxiety in the child
(OR 0.38).
108 (27%) of 398 children had one or more anxiety disorder
detected; among these, generalized anxiety disorder 7.8%; social anxiety
disorder 6.3%; separation anxiety disorder 8.6%; specific phobia was 8% and bta
anxiety disorder was 5%.
It was determined that the rates of anxiety disorders in children increased with age
; It was observed that while it was 14% in children younger than 9 years of age, it increased to 52% in children
over 15 years of age. Anxiety disorders were found in 24%
in boys and 30% in girls. If both parents have anxiety
, the rate of anxiety disorder in children is 41%
observed high. The findings show the possible role of environmental factors in familial transmission, in the form of modeling and representational learning
. The child receives a similar amount of genetic information from each of the biological parents
, and the positive effect of the healthy/strong same-sex parent creates the effect of learning resilience in the child by modeling the behavior of the same-sex parent. Parent's
anxiety disorder may impair this protective learning. Jill Emanuele, head of the MIND Institute of Child Clinical Education at New
York University
“when it comes to anxiety, it is important to
evaluate both parent and child; states that both genetics and environment are effective in anxiety disorder
. In the case of a parent with clinical anxiety disorder
, the child is at risk of being affected, whether or not the child has an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders begin
before mood disorders and may occur in childhood. It is important to be noticed at an early age
, if not treated, the same problems may continue in adulthood.
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