Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Relations Between Parents’ Anxiety Symptoms, Marital Quality, and Preschoolers’ Externalizing and Internalizing Behaviors

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Child and Family Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Our objective was to expand understanding of the associations between fathers’ and mothers’ anxiety symptoms, their perceptions of marital quality, and their children’s maladjustment behaviors. Sixty Israeli families with a child aged 3–5 participated. Mothers and fathers completed self-report questionnaires assessing parents’ anxiety symptoms, marital dissatisfaction, and marital overt conflict, and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors. The actor–partner interdependence mediation model (APIMeM) design with distinguishable dyads within a path analysis framework was used. Findings showed that marital dissatisfaction of both mothers and fathers partially mediated the links between mothers’ anxiety and child behaviors. For externalizing behaviors, actor and partner effects were found, so that mothers’ anxiety symptoms predicted mothers’ own marital dissatisfaction (actor effect) and fathers’ marital dissatisfaction (partner effect), which, in turn were linked with children’s externalizing behaviors. As for internalizing behaviors, only actor effect was found, so that mothers’ anxiety symptoms were linked with maternal dissatisfaction, which, in turn, was linked with child internalizing behaviors. For fathers’ anxiety symptoms, the APIMeM indicated only direct effects on both internalizing and externalizing behaviors. These findings highlight the risk associated with parental anxiety and the contribution of the marital relations to children’s adjustment and are discussed in light of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model and Emotional Security Theory.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Achenbach, T., & Rescorla, L. (2000). ASEBA preschool forms and profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth and Families.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arbuckle, J. L. (2003). Amos 5.0. Chicago, Il: SPSS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Atzaba-Poria, N. (2011). Internalizing and externalizing problems in early childhood: A study of former Soviet Union and veteran-Israeli children living in Israel. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 42(6), 983–997.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bayer, J. K., Sanson, A. V., & Hemphill, S. A. (2006). Parent influences on early childhood internalizing difficulties. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 27, 542–559.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Biederman, J., Faraone, S. V., Hirshfeld-Becker, D. R., Friedman, D., Robin, J. A., & Rosenbaum, J. F. (2001). Patterns of psychopathology and dysfunction in high-risk children of parents with panic disorder and major depression. American Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 49–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bleich, A., Gelkopf, M., & Solomon, Z. (2003). Exposure to terrorism, stress-related mental health symptoms, and coping behaviors among a nationally representative sample in Israel. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 290, 612–620.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977). Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American Psychologist, 32, 513–531.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). Contexts of child rearing: problems and prospects. American Psychologist, 34, 844–850.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bronfenbrenner, U. (1995). Developmental ecology through space and time: a future perspective. In P. Moen, G. H. Elder, Jr. & K. Lüscher (Eds.), Examining lives in context: perspectives on the ecology of human development (pp. 619–647). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Buchanan, C. M., & Heiges, K. L. (2001). When conflict continues after the marriage ends: effects of postdivorce conflict on children. In J. H. Grych & F. D. Fincham (Eds.), Interparental conflict and child development: theory, research, and applications (pp. 337–362). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511527838.015.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Caughlin, J. P., Huston, T. L., & Houts, R. M. (2000). How does personality matter in marriage? An examination of trait anxiety, interpersonal negativity, and marital satisfaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 326–336.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Central Bureau of Statistics. (2016). Society in Israel. http://www.cbs.gov.il.

  • Christopher, C., Umemura, T., Mann, T., Jacobvitz, D., & Hazen, N. (2015). Marital quality over the transition to parenthood as a predictor of co-parenting. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24, 3636–3651.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connell, A., & Goodman, S. (2002). The association between psychopathology in fathers versus mothers and children’s internalizing and externalizing behavior problems: a meta-analysis.‏ Psychological Bulletin, 128, 746–773.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cooklin, A., Giallo, R., D’Esposito, F., Crawford, S., & Nicholson, J. (2013). Postpartum maternal separation anxiety, overprotective parenting, and children’s social-emotional well-being: longitudinal evidence from an Australian cohort. Journal of Family Psychology, 27, 618–628.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cummings, E. M., & Davies, P. T. (2002). Effects of marital conflict on children: Recent advances and emerging themes in process-oriented research. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43(1), 31–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cummings, M., George, M. R. W., McCoy, K. P., & Davies, P. T. (2012). Interparental conflict in kindergarten and adolescent adjustment: prospective investigation and emotional security as an explanatory mechanism. Child Development, 83, 1703–1715.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cummings, E. M., Goeke-Morey, M. C., Schermerhorn, A. C., Merrilees, C. E., & Cairns, E. (2009). Children and political violence from a social ecological perspective: Implications from research on children and families in Northern Ireland. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 12(1), 16–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cummings, M., Keller, P., & Davies, P. (2005). Towards a family process model of maternal and paternal depressive symptoms: exploring multiple relations with child and family functioning. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 46, 479–489.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cummings, E. M., Merrilees, C. E., Taylor, L. K., & Mondi, C. F. (2017). Developmental and social–ecological perspectives on children, political violence, and armed conflict. Development and Psychopathology, 29, 1–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies, P. T., & Cummings, E. M. (1994). Marital conflict and child adjustment: an emotional security hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 116, 387–411.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies, P. T., & Lindsay, L. L. (2004). Interparental conflict and adolescent adjustment: why does gender moderate early adolescent vulnerability? Journal of Family Psychology, 18, 160–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies, P. T., Sturge-Apple, M., Winter, M., Cummings, M., & Farrell, D. (2006). Child adaptational development in context of interparental conflict over time. Child Development, 77, 218–233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dehle, C., & Weiss, R. (2002). Associations between anxiety and marital adjustment. The Journal of Psychology, 136, 328–338.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Derogatis, L. R. (1993). BSI Brief Symptom Inventory: administration, scoring, and procedure manual. 4th ed. Minneapolis, MN: National Computer Systems.

    Google Scholar 

  • Derogatis, L. R., & Melisaratos, N. (1983). The Brief Symptom Inventory: an introductory report. Psychological Medicine, 13, 595–605.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Efron, B., & Tibshirani, R. J. (1993). An introduction to the bootstrap. Washington, DC: Chapman and Hall/CRC.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Figueiredo, B., Canário, C., Tendais, I., Pinto, T. M., Kenny, D. A., & Field, T. (2018). Couples’ relationship affects mothers’ and fathers’ anxiety and depression trajectories over the transition to parenthood. Journal of Affective Disorders, 238, 204–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fincham, F. D., & Beach, S. R. (2010). Marriage in the new millennium: a decade in review. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72, 630–649.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, S. D. (2017). Paternal mental health: why is it relevant? American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 11(3), 200–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glasheen, C., Richardson, G. A., & Fabio, A. (2010). A systematic review of the effects of postnatal maternal anxiety on children. Archives of Women’s Mental Health, 13(1), 61–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gotlib, I. H., & McCabe, S. B. (1990). Marriage and psychopathology. In F. D. Fincham & T. N. Bradbury (Eds.), The psychology of marriage: basic issues and applications (pp. 226–257). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halford, W. K., & Bouma, R. (1997). Individual psychopathology and marital distress. In W. K. Halford & H. J. Markman (Eds.), Clinical handbook of marriage and couples’ interventions (pp. 291–321). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanington, L., Heron, J., Stein, A., & Ramchandani, P. (2012). Parental depression and child outcomes–Is marital conflict the missing link? Child: Care, Health and Development, 38, 520–529.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heberle, A. E., Krill, S. C., Briggs-Gowan, M. J., & Carter, A. S. (2015). Predicting externalizing and internalizing behavior in kindergarten: examining the buffering role of early social support. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 44, 640–654.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hettema, J. M., Neale, M. C., & Kendler, K. S. (2001). A review and meta-analysis of the genetic epidemiology of anxiety disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 1568–1578.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kane, P., & Garber, J. (2009). Parental depression and child externalizing and internalizing symptoms: unique effects of fathers’ symptoms and perceived conflict as a mediator. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 18, 465–472.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keller, P. S., Cummings, E., Peterson, K. M., & Davies, P. T. (2009). Marital conflict in the context of parental depressive symptoms: implications for the development of children’s adjustment problems. Social Development, 18, 536–555.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kestler-Peleg, M., & Lavenda, O. (2018). Anxiety and defensiveness as predictors of maternal child-centrism. Feminism & Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353518757255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lavee, Y., & Ben-Ari, A. (2003). Daily stresses and uplifts during times of political tension: Jews and Arabs in Israel. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 73(1), 65–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lavee, Y., & Katz, R. (2003). The family in Israel: between tradition and modernity. Marriage & Family Review, 35(1-2), 193–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ledermann, T., Macho, S., & Kenny, D. A. (2011). Assessing mediation in dyadic data using the actor-partner interdependence model. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 18, 595–612.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lieb, R., Wittchen, H. U., Höfler, M., Fuetsch, M., Stein, M. B., & Merikangas, K. R. (2000). Parental psychopathology, parenting styles, and the risk of social phobia in offspring: a prospective-longitudinal community study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 57, 859–866.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maxwell, S. E., & Cole, D. A. (2007). Bias in cross-sectional analyses of longitudinal mediation. Psychological Methods, 12(1), 23–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McClure, E., Brennan, P., Hammen, C., & Le Brocque, R. M. (2001). Parental anxiety disorders, child anxiety disorders, and the perceived parent-child relationship in an Australian high-risk sample. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 29(1), 1–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCoy, K. P., George, M. R., Cummings, E. M., & Davies, P. T. (2013). Constructive and destructive marital conflict, parenting, and children’s school and social adjustment. Social Development, 22, 641–662.

    Google Scholar 

  • McHale, S. M., Freitag, M. K., Crouter, A. C., & Bartko, W. T. (1991). Connections between dimensions of marital quality and school-age children’s adjustment. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 12(1), 1–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McLean, C. P., Asnaani, A., Litz, B. T., & Hofmann, S. G. (2011). Gender differences in anxiety disorders: Prevalence, course of illness, comorbidity and burden of illness. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 45, 1027–1035.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller-Graff, L. E., & Cummings, E. M. (2017). The Israeli–Palestinian conflict: effects on youth adjustment, available interventions, and future research directions. Developmental Review, 43, 1–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Möller, E. L., Majdandžić, M., Vriends, N., & Bögels, S. M. (2014). Social referencing and child anxiety: the evolutionary based role of fathers’ versus mothers’ signals. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 23, 1268–1277.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Narayanan, M. K., & Nærde, A. (2016). Associations between maternal and paternal depressive symptoms and early child behavior problems: testing a mutually adjusted prospective longitudinal model. Journal of Affective Disorders, 196, 181–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor, T. G., Heron, J., Golding, J., & Glover, V. (2003). Maternal antenatal anxiety and behavioral/emotional problems in children: a test of a programming hypothesis. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 44, 1025–1036.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olsen, J. A., & Kenny, D. A. (2006). Structural equation modeling with interchangeable dyads. Psychological Methods, 11(2), 127–141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parfitt, Y., Pike, A., & Ayers, S. (2014). Infant developmental outcomes: a family systems perspective. Infant and Child Development, 23, 353–373.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pedro, M. F., Ribeiro, T., & Shelton, K. H. (2012). Marital satisfaction and partners’ parenting practices: the mediating role of coparenting behavior. Journal of Family Psychology, 26, 509–522.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pereira, A. I., Barros, L., Mendonça, D., & Muris, P. (2014). The relationships among parental anxiety, parenting, and children’s anxiety: the mediating effects of children’s cognitive vulnerabilities. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 23, 399–409.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porter, B., & O’Leary, K. D. (1980). Marital discord and childhood behavior problems. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 8, 287–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, M., & Neece, C. L. (2015). Marital satisfaction, parental stress, and child behavior problems among parents of young children with developmental delays. Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 8(1), 23–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shamir, H., Cummings, E. M., Davies, P. T., & Goeke-Morey, M. C. (2005). Children’s reactions to marital conflict in Israel and in the United States. Parenting: Science and Practice, 5, 371–386.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shelton, K. H., & Harold, G. T. (2007). Marital conflict and children’s adjustment: the mediating and moderating role of children’s coping strategies. Social Development, 16, 497–512.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh, A. L., D’Onofrio, B. M., Slutske, W. S., Turkheimer, E., Emery, R. E., Harden, K. P., & Martin, N. G. (2011). Parental depression and offspring psychopathology: a children of twins study. Psychological Medicine, 41, 1385–1395.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spanier, G. B. (1976). Measuring dyadic adjustment: new scales for assessing the quality of marriage and similar dyads. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 38, 15–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sturge-Apple, M. L., Davies, P. T., Winter, M. A., Cummings, E. M., & Schermerhorn, A. (2008). Interparental conflict and children’s school adjustment: the explanatory role of children’s internal representations of interparental and parent-child relationships. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1678–1690.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tavassolie, T., Dudding, S., Madigan, A. L., Thorvardarson, E., & Winsler, A. (2016). Differences in perceived parenting style between mothers and fathers: implications for child outcomes and marital conflict. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 25, 2055–2068.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trapolini, T., McMahon, C. A., & Ungerer, J. A. (2007). The effect of maternal depression and marital adjustment on young children’s internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Child: Care, Health and Development, 33, 794–803.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vostanis, P., Graves, A., Meltzer, H., Goodman, R., Jenkins, R., & Brugha, T. (2006). Relationship between parental psychopathology, parenting strategies and child mental health. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 41, 509–514.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weitzman, M., Rosenthal, D. G., & Liu, Y. H. (2011). Paternal depressive symptoms and child behavioral or emotional problems in the United States. Pediatrics, 128, 1126–1134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yuksel, M., & Canel, A. N. (2012). The analysis of social competency and anti-social behaviors of children aged between 4 and 5 from the perspective of marital satisfaction and some other variables. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 46, 4973–4980.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zimmet, D. M., & Jacob, T. (2001). Influences of marital conflict on child adjustment: review of theory and research. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 4, 319–335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The study was supported by a grant from the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo. We wish to thank the families who volunteered for the study for their time and effort.

Author Contributions

KHG: designed and executed the study, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript. DGD: designed and executed the study, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript. SL: analyzed the data and wrote part of the Results section of the revised manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Behavioral Sciences, The Academic College of Tel- Aviv-Yaffo, Yaffo, Israel

    Keren Hanetz Gamliel, Daphna G. Dollberg & Sigal Levy

Authors
  1. Keren Hanetz Gamliel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Daphna G. Dollberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sigal Levy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Keren Hanetz Gamliel.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual 745 participants included in the study.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hanetz Gamliel, K., Dollberg, D.G. & Levy, S. Relations Between Parents’ Anxiety Symptoms, Marital Quality, and Preschoolers’ Externalizing and Internalizing Behaviors. J Child Fam Stud 27, 3952–3963 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1212-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1212-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation