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July 11, 2026Development and PsychopathologyOpen Access

The role of child behavioral inhibition in the intergenerational transmission of anxiety in early childhood

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Authors

MEMichelle Bosquet EnlowAAAsja AbronDSDashiell D. Sacks

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Overview

Randomized trial examines behavioral inhibition's role in anxiety transmission from mothers to children, suggesting key mechanisms.

Key Points

  • The research aims to explore how child behavioral inhibition mediates or moderates the relationship between maternal and child anxiety symptoms.
  • Community sample of mother-child dyads (N = 541), assessing maternal and child symptoms at infancy and at 3 and 5 years.
  • Examined behavioral inhibition in children and its interaction with maternal symptoms regarding child anxiety.
  • No mediation was found between maternal and child symptoms through behavioral inhibition.
  • High behavioral inhibition consistently linked to elevated child anxiety symptoms regardless of maternal influences (β = −0.13, p = .009 at 3 years).
  • Moderate to low behavioral inhibition showed that maternal anxiety increased child symptoms (pattern continued at 5 years).

Cite This Study

Enlow et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a51e277c18d7f28ca5014cehttps://doi.org/10.1017/s0954579426101643
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