The Effect Of Maternal Trait Anxiety On Preschool Children’s Anxiety

Anxiety is universal and stable in children’s psychological development,which is the most common emotional experience in children’s preschool period.Although moderate anxiety is beneficial to the development of children’s personality,excessive or generalized anxiety can easily lead to abnormal or pathological disorders,which would have adverse and profound effects on children’s physical and mental health,interpersonal communication,adaptive development and other aspects.Therefore,the causes and influencing factors of preschool children’s anxiety have gradually become the research focus in the field of developmental psychology.As the most important supporter of preschool children,maternal personality characteristics,psychological control over their children and parent-child attachment inevitably affect the development of preschool children’s anxiety.In recent years,researchers at home and abroad have continuously enriched and deepened their research on intergenerational inheritance of anxiety,but the relationship among maternal trait anxiety,psychological control,parent-child attachment and anxiety of preschool children has not yet been found.Children are the future of the motherland and preschool age is the best period of individual emotional education and personality shaping,so it is urgent to pay attention to the mental health of preschool children under the background of the development of modernization.And it is essential to deeply explore the relationship of maternal trait anxiety,maternal psychological control,parent-child attachment and preschool children’s anxiety and the effect mechanism of maternal trait anxiety on preschool children’s anxiety.In this study,506 mothers of preschool children aged 3-6 years old were selected from five kindergartens in Harbin in cluster sampling method.The paper-based questionnaires were conducted by Spielberger’s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory,Parent-Child Attachment Scale,Maternal Psychological Control of Preschool Children Scale and Spence Preschool Anxiety Scale.The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship among maternal trait anxiety,maternal psychological control,parent-child attachment and preschool children’s anxiety,and the effect mechanism of maternal trait anxiety on preschool children’s anxiety.Data analysis revealed that:(1)There were significant differences in maternal trait anxiety,maternal psychological control,parent-child attachment and preschool children’s anxiety among certain demographicvariables,such as gender and age of preschool children,only child,age of mother,maternal education and monthly household income.(2)Maternal trait anxiety was significantly negatively correlated with parent-child attachment,significantly positively correlated with maternal psychological control and its all dimensions,and significantly positively correlated with preschool children’s anxiety and all its dimensions;Parent-child attachment was significantly negatively correlated with maternal psychological control and its dimensions restricted oral expression,personal attack,withdrawal of love,guilt guidance,and with preschool children’s anxiety and its dimensions social anxiety disorder,obsessive-compulsive disorder,generalized anxiety;Maternal psychological control and all its dimensions were significantly positively correlated with preschool children’s anxiety and all its dimensions.(3)Maternal trait anxiety significantly positively predicted preschool children’s anxiety,significantly positively predicted maternal psychological control,and significantly negatively predicted parent-child attachment;Maternal psychological control significantly negatively predicted parent-child attachment and significantly positively predicted preschool children’s anxiety;Parent-child attachment significantly negatively predicted anxiety of preschool children.(4)Maternal psychological control played a partial mediating role between maternal trait anxiety and preschool children’s anxiety relationship,and parent-child attachment had a partial mediating effect between maternal trait anxiety and preschool children’s anxiety relationship.(5)Maternal psychological control and parent-child attachment played a parallel mediating role between maternal trait anxiety and preschool children’s anxiety.The result shows that maternal trait anxiety can not only directly affect preschool children’s anxiety,but also indirectly affect preschool children’s anxiety through maternal psychological control or the quality of parent-child attachment.In addition,maternal trait anxiety can also indirectly affect preschool children’s anxiety through maternal psychological control and parent-child attachment simultaneously.