Evaluation of a Primary Prevention Program for Anxiety Disorders Using Story Books with Children Aged 9–12 Years

Current developments in cognitive and emotion theory suggest that anxiety plays a rather central role in negative emotions. This article reviews findings in the area of anxiety and depression, helplessness, locus of control, explanatory style, animal learning, biology, parenting, attachment theory, and childhood stress and resilience to articulate a model of the environmental influences on the development of anxiety. Evidence from a variety of sources suggests that early experience with diminished control may foster a cognitive style characterized by an increased probability of interpreting or processing subsequent events as out of one's control, which may represent a psychological vulnerability for anxiety. Implications for research are discussed. Show more

Gene-environment interplay is a general term that covers several divergent concepts with different meanings and different implications. In this review, we evaluate research evidence on four varieties of gene-environment interplay. First, we consider epigenetic mechanisms by which environmental influences alter the effects of genes. Second, we focus on variations in heritability according to environmental circumstances. Third, we discuss what is known about gene-environment correlations. Finally, we assess concepts and findings on the interaction between specific identified genes and specific measured environmental risks. In order to provide an understanding of what may be involved in gene-environment interplay, we begin our presentation with a brief historical review of prevailing views about the role of genetic and environmental factors in the causation of mental disorders, and we provide a simplified account of some of the key features of how genes 'work'. Show more

Theoretical models posit that parenting plays a causal role in the development and maintenance of child psychological problems, yet meta-analytic findings indicate that parenting accounts for less than 6% of the variance in child externalizing problems and less than 4% of the variance in childhood anxiety. Extending the analysis to childhood depression, we conducted a meta-analysis of 45 studies testing the association between parenting and childhood depression. We found that parenting accounted for 8% of the variance in child depression. Parental rejection was more strongly related to childhood depression than was parental control. Moreover, various subdimensions of parenting were differentially associated with childhood depression, with parental hostility toward the child most strongly related to child depression. Analyses also revealed that methodological factors (i.e., how parenting and child depression was conceptualized and assessed) moderated the parenting-childhood depression association. Inconsistent findings within the literature are partially attributable to variations from study to study in measurement quality. Closer attention to the precise measurement of these two constructs in future studies may lead to a more accurate estimate of the association between parenting and child depression. In all, the modest association between parenting and childhood depression indicates that factors other than parenting may account for the preponderance of variance in childhood depression. Show more