Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2010 Jul;51(7):772-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02227.x. Epub 2010 Feb 24.
Despite theoretical and empirical support for an association between maternal control and child anxiety, few studies have examined the origins of this association. Furthermore, none use observer-ratings of maternal control within a genetically informative design. This study addressed three questions: 1) do children who experience maternal control report higher anxiety levels than those who do not?; 2) to what extent do genetic and environmental factors influence maternal control and child anxiety?; 3) to what extent do genetic and environmental factors influence the associations between child anxiety and maternal control?
Five hundred and thirty 8-year-old children (from 265 twin pairs) and their mothers were observed participating in an 'etch-a-sketch' task from which maternal control was rated. Children rated their anxiety using the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders.
Children who experienced maternal behaviour rated as 'extreme control' reported higher anxiety levels than those who did not. Maternal control was highly heritable (A = .63), high self-rated anxiety less so (h(2)(g) = .36). The overlap between high child anxiety and maternal control was primarily due to shared genetic factors.
These results suggest that maternal control is likely to have been elicited by children with high levels of anxiety.
尽管有理论和实证支持母亲控制与儿童焦虑之间存在关联，但很少有研究探讨这种关联的起源。此外，没有研究在具有遗传信息设计的情况下使用观察者对母亲控制的评分。本研究提出了三个问题：1）经历母亲控制的儿童是否比没有经历过的儿童报告更高的焦虑水平？2）遗传和环境因素在多大程度上影响母亲控制和儿童焦虑？3）遗传和环境因素在多大程度上影响儿童焦虑与母亲控制之间的关联？
对 530 名 8 岁儿童（来自 265 对双胞胎）及其母亲进行观察，让他们参与“画笔画”任务，从中对母亲控制进行评分。儿童使用儿童焦虑相关情绪障碍筛查表自评焦虑水平。
经历母亲被评为“极端控制”行为的儿童报告的焦虑水平高于没有经历过的儿童。母亲控制具有高度遗传性（A =.63），而高自我报告焦虑则不然（h(2)(g) =.36）。高儿童焦虑与母亲控制之间的重叠主要归因于共同的遗传因素。
这些结果表明，母亲控制可能是由焦虑水平较高的儿童引起的。
