In a study out of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, researchers went out to study whether the anxious behavior that parents modeled was picked up by their children, and if so, to what degree.
The sample size was 25 parents with a random selection of 12 male and 13 female parents participated with one of their children that ranged in age from eight to 12 years of age. The test consisted of all the children being in the presence of their parent acting anxious before a planned spelling test and another instance when the parent acted relaxed and confident before the planned spelling test.
The results were that it didn’t matter what gender the parent was, and that, “children endorsed higher anxiety levels, anxious cognitions, and desired avoidance of the spelling test in the anxious relative to the non-anxious condition. Interestingly, parental modeling of anxiety did not affect child spelling performance. The impact was stronger with fathers than with mothers.
For more information, read the full study.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2871979/
Razi Berry, Founder and Publisher of Naturopathic Doctor News & Review (ndnr.com) and NaturalPath (thenatpath.com), has spent the last decade as a natural medicine advocate and marketing whiz. She has galvanized and supported the naturopathic community, bringing a higher quality of healthcare to millions of North Americans through her publications. A self-proclaimed health-food junkie and mother of two; she loves all things nature, is obsessed with organic gardening, growing fruit trees (not easy in Phoenix), laughing until she snorts, and homeschooling. She is a little bit crunchy and yes, that is her real name.
