Maternal Acceptance Moderates Fear Ratings and Avoidance Behavior in Children

• Published in: Child psychiatry and human development Vol. 49; no. 3; pp. 460 - 467
• Main Authors: Shimshoni, Yaara, Silverman, Wendy K., Byrne, Simon P., Lebowitz, Eli R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-06-2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acceptance; Adolescent; Adolescents; Animals; Anxiety - psychology; Anxiety disorders; Anxiety Disorders - psychology; Avoidance behavior; Avoidance Learning; Behavior; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Child; Child & adolescent psychiatry; Child and School Psychology; Child psychology; Children; Children & youth; Emotions; Fear; Fear & phobias; Fear - psychology; Female; Humans; Male; Maternal behavior; Maternal Behavior - psychology; Mother-Child Relations - psychology; Mothers; Mothers - psychology; Original Article; Psychiatry; Psychology; Self evaluation; Self Report; Spider phobia; Spiders; Tracking; Fear; Children and adolescents; Maternal acceptance; Anxiety disorders; Avoidance
• ISSN: 0009-398X; 1573-3327
• DOI: 10.1007/s10578-017-0765-5

Avoidance is a hallmark feature of anxiety disorders, and avoidance-related impairment is often key to meeting diagnostic criteria. In children and adolescents with anxiety disorders, levels of avoidance vary considerably. Using a novel motion-tracking measure of avoidance behavior, we examined whether maternal acceptance, characterized by warm and accepting responses to child feelings and behaviors, moderates the association between fear of spiders and behavioral avoidance of spider stimuli in 103 clinically anxious children. As hypothesized, maternal acceptance significantly moderated children’s avoidance behavior. Child’s fear of spiders was significantly associated with behavioral avoidance when mothers were low in acceptance, as rated by either mothers or children. When mothers were high in acceptance, as rated by either mothers or children, child self-rated fear of spiders was not significantly associated with child avoidance. These are the first results to empirically demonstrate the moderating role of maternal acceptance in anxious children’s avoidance behavior.