All background factors
Childhood emotional factors
Macro-factors
Protective factors
Parental interactions
Home environment
Abuse
Bulling
Attachment style
Positive regard
Gender
Ethnicity
Single parent
Childhood emotional factors
- Childhood emotional disorders (Bishop et al., 2003)
- cognitive bias very similar to adult disorders
- e.g. attending to and remembering negative memories and emotional content
- anxiety in childhood (Carthy et al., 2010)
- less successful at applying reappraisals - reframing threatening things in a less threatening perspective
- social anxiety in childhood (Muris et al., 2000)
- need to hear fewer sentences from stories about social situations before deciding they were scary
- depression in childhood/youth (Garnefski et al., 2007)
- less likely to use effective coping strategies
- less confident in benefit of coping strategies
Macro-factors (childhood adversities)
Pirkola et al., 2005
- 60% adults reported 1 or more childhood adversity
- e.g. materal problems with alcohol, paternal mental health problems, bullying, family discord
- 17% of these given psychiatric diagnosis when adult vs. 10% without adversities
McLaughlin et al., 2010
- more childhood adversity - more likley to develop later problems including depression, PTSD and anxiety
- significant stressors/early adversity = 2x more likely
Protective factors
Children’s Society (2013) top 3
- choice and autonomy
- loving and supportive family
- support a ‘reasonable’ level of choice or autonomy
- friends & peers that support choice (appearance and self expression)
- family harmony & parental support
- independent factor associated with well-being
- money and possessions
- direct experience of deprivation (e.g. of cherished possessions) more related to well-being than household indicators of poverty
Parental interactions
Craig et al., 2004 - mothers with anxiety give children less attention during normal play, more responsive when child plays with medical box
Varela et al., 2009 - authoritative, intrusive, over-protective, controlling parents = increased risk for anxiety disorders
Parental interactions
Evidence against
Waters et al., 2008
- No evidence of impact of parental style
- Children of anxious, non-anxious parents, children with an anxiety disorder
- no difference in perceptions of threat, control, emotional reactions for children with anxious/non-anxious parents
- children w/ anxiety disorders experience more threat, less control, more negative emotional responses
Home environment
High-conflict marriages
- less warm, more rejecting, harsher in discipline, more depressed
- fathers more likely to withdraw from parenting role
- marital discord more of an issue than divorce! - Children protected if maintain good relationship with at least 1 parent & have good emotional support from friends/siblings
Abuse
Spataro et al., 2004
- sexual abuse –> 4x more likely to develop sig. mental health problems
Coid et al., 2003
- physical abuse –> associated with poor mental health
Bullying
Sourander et al., 2009
- associated with adult anxiety, anti-social personality disorder, suicide attempt
Attachment theory
Ainsworth & Bowlby, 1991
- secure
- consistent appropriate responses from caregiver
- anxious-avoidance
- child shows little/no response when parent is away
- Comforted by strangers
- rebellious/poor self-image/low self-esteem
- anxious-ambivalent
- highly dependent on attachment figure - preoccupied with their availability, seek contact - angry/resentful when with parent
- inconsistent/innapropriate responses from caregiver - uncertainty!!
- disorganised
- extreme response associated with abuse/maltreatment
- child may be frightened, engage in stereotypical behaviour e.g. freezing/rocking
- show disorientation - approach caregiver but with their back turned
Positive regard
Unconditional positive regard
- don’t have to behave in a favoured way by observer (I love you no matter what)
Genuineness
- environment in which the individual can express their own sense of self without constraints, rather than playing a role or hiding behind a facade
Empathy
- Environment in which the individual is involved with people who understand their perspective of the world, share their phenomenal field (objects, thoughts, people, behaviours, images)
Gender and anxiety disorders
Women more likley to develop anxiety disorders!
- less job stability
- higher level of negative life events
- chronic stressors e.g. insecure housing tenure
- low levels of social support
- additional caring roles (children, parnters, parents)
Single parents
2x higher in single mothers than those with partners
4x higher in single fathers
Primary contributor = economic hardship & lack of social support
