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Children of anxious parents often have the same personality traits. But it seems that they are not only transmitted genetically, but can also be adopted during communication with anxious people.
Anxiety disorders are the most common behavioral features of people: at some point in their lives, up to 30% of the population suffers from them. Usually they declare themselves quite early, for example, in adolescence, at 11-12 years old. And they cause a lot of inconvenience – they affect personal life, lead to financial and social problems. That is why it is especially important to study these disorders in children. And so did a group of psychologists led by Thalia C. Eley of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London. Scientists turned to data from a large Swedish study of twins and their children, which contained information on 387 families with identical twins and 489 families with fraternal twins.1.
Read more:
- What is an anxious person afraid of?
Parents took a personality type test, which could identify disturbing traits. The twins, their spouses, and the children themselves spoke about their children’s behavior over the past 6 months. Using a statistical analysis technique called structural equation modeling, the researchers separated the effects of genetic factors, general environmental factors (affecting all family members equally), and individual environmental factors on parental anxiety.
The model showed that anxiety and neuroticism are unlikely to be largely transmitted genetically, but transmitted through communication – children seem to be “infected” with parents’ anxiety.
“Our work has shown that even if you yourself suffer from high anxiety, this does not necessarily mean that your children will inherit this problem. There are many ways to reduce anxiety in children and teens. Although you often want to protect them from everything, in fact it is more useful to support them and allow them to take a little risk – within the limits of tolerance and age. This will show them that the world is basically safe and that they can deal with situations that initially cause fear, building self-confidence and psychological resilience,” recommends Thalia K. Eley.
1 T. Eley «The Intergenerational Transmission of Anxiety: A Children-of-Twins Study». The American Journal of Psychiatry, 2015 January 13.