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Perceived Family Environment and Symptoms of Emotional Disorders: The Role of Perceived Control, Attributional Style, and Attachment

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Abstract

Findings from decades of research suggest that a perceived lack of parental care and overprotection are positively related to later symptoms of emotional disorders in children and adolescents. The present study used a cross-sectional design to evaluate models investigating reported family environment during childhood, current attachments, control-related cognitions, and current symptoms of emotional disorders in adolescence. It was hypothesized the effect of a perceived controlling and rejecting family environment during childhood would influence current depression and anxiety, and that these effects would be partially accounted for by the quality of current attachments, perceived control, and attributional style. A sample of 234 university students was assessed. Regression analyses of variables, including analyses of indirect effects, were conducted. As predicted, current attachment, perceived control, and attributional style helped to account for relationships between some family variables, and depression and anxiety. Findings are discussed with respect to the interplay of family variables and models of emotional disorders.

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Notes

  1. Overall, attributional style accounted for the relationship between family conflict and AA. However, given that previous regression analyses revealed that the relationship between family conflict and anxious arousal was only significant for females, we presented the results for this test of indirect effects for females only.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial VAMC (116B), 200 Springs Rd., Bedford, MA, 01730, USA

    Kathleen Newcomb Rekart

  2. Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Kathleen Newcomb Rekart, Susan Mineka & James W. Griffith

  3. Northwestern University and the Family Institute at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Richard E. Zinbarg

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  1. Kathleen Newcomb Rekart
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  2. Susan Mineka
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  3. Richard E. Zinbarg
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  4. James W. Griffith
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Correspondence to Kathleen Newcomb Rekart.

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Rekart, K.N., Mineka, S., Zinbarg, R.E. et al. Perceived Family Environment and Symptoms of Emotional Disorders: The Role of Perceived Control, Attributional Style, and Attachment. Cogn Ther Res 31, 419–436 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-007-9131-4

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