Anxiety disorders are a prevalent mental health issue that can affect individuals worldwide. Many people wonder whether anxiety disorders can be passed down from parents to their children.
Psychiatrist Jana Ali Zaabalawi explains that anxiety disorders can indeed be transmitted from parents to children, citing biological, psychological, and social factors that contribute to the development of the disorder.
Genetics plays a role in the transmission of anxiety disorders, as anxious parents often have anxious children, and females tend to suffer from anxiety more frequently than males. Children can also acquire anxiety from their parents’ behavior and become anxious as a result of environmental factors such as family problems or problems at school.
Genetics plays a role in the transmission of anxiety disorders.
Zaabalawi emphasizes that anxious parents are typically overprotective towards their children, which can cause them to become anxious and reliant on their parents. This dependence can prevent them from developing the skills needed to cope with their fears, leading to anxiety in adulthood and other complications such as depression.
To avoid passing on anxiety disorders to their children, parents should seek appropriate psychological treatment. Family and psychological counselor Dr Ahmed Sirwi states that the way parents interact with their children has a direct impact on the formation of their personality, and anxiety disorders fall under 11 types of disorders.
Thus, parents can either contribute to the development of these disorders or help to reduce them by adopting appropriate parenting methods.
Children tend to imitate their parents’ behavior from an early age.
According to a study by Healthline, anxiety disorders are more likely to be passed on from fathers to sons and from mothers to daughters. The study indicates that anxiety disorders usually begin early in life, and having a parent with an anxiety disorder is a significant risk factor.
Children tend to imitate their parents’ behavior from an early age, and characteristics of the same-sex parent are often transmitted to them. Therefore, parents should be mindful of their behavior in the presence of their children to avoid transmitting anxiety disorders to them.
Shane Owens, a behavioral and cognitive psychologist in New York who supervised the study, says that children will imitate their parents from an early age. Owens warns parents that “what they do in the presence of a child is likely to be imitated.”
Anxious parents are typically overprotective towards their children, which can cause them to become anxious.
Children look up to their parents, and the characteristics of parents, especially of the same sex, are often transmitted to them. This extends to behavior, especially in times of crisis. A boy with anxiety will act like his father, and a girl with anxiety will mimic her mother’s response to similar circumstances.
In summary, anxiety disorders can be transmitted from parents to children due to a combination of biological, psychological, and social factors. Parents who suffer from anxiety disorders should seek appropriate psychological treatment to avoid passing on the disorder to their children.
Parents should also be mindful of their behavior in the presence of their children as children tend to imitate their parents’ behavior from an early age.
