| Maternal behavior during mother-child interactions was investigated as a function of maternal anxiety and manipulated environmental stress. A two-by-two mixed factorial design was employed. Participants were 20 mothers scoring in the moderate to severe range on two administrations of the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI; Beck, Epstein, Brown, & Steer, 1988) and their two- to six-year-old children, and 25 mothers who scored in the minimal range of anxiety on two administrations of the BAI and their two- to six-year-old children. Correlations demonstrated that in the anxious group, mothers' depressive symptomology, as assessed by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock, & Erbaugh, 1961) was determined to be unrelated to levels of anxious symptomology. All dyads participated in videotaped low stress and high stress conditions, and all mothers participated in audio taped video-mediated recall sessions following each stress condition.; Mothers' overt verbal behavior was coded using a method developed by Ohr, Vidair, and Hoag (2004), overt nonverbal behavior was coded using a method adapted from the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System (DPICS; Eyberg, 2004), and covert verbal behavior (video-mediated recall of thought) was coded using a procedure originally developed by Ohr (2004).; Split-plot analyses of variance and correlations were conducted. Support was found for the effect of stress on mother-child interactions, whereas support was determined for the effect of anxiety to a lesser extent. Results indicated that during the high stress condition, all mothers displayed more dysfunctional thought patterns, and less neutral thought patterns. Stressed mothers used more negative, less positive, and less engagement/neutral language with their children. Mothers who were anxious were more likely to demonstrate dysfunctional thinking, and were also more likely to use positive touch but only during the low stress condition. Support was not found for a link between negative verbalizations and negative thoughts for anxious mothers.; An investigational research question regarding child functioning did not provide evidence that children of anxious mothers were more likely to be anxious or depressed than children of nonanxious mothers. The current results are discussed using a cognitive-behavioral framework, and directions for future research are offered. |
