The Influence of Parental Attachment on Preschooler’s Anxiety: The

Mediating Effect of Parent-Child Relationship Based on SPSS

Analysis

Yanrong Zhu

1, 2 a

, Ziying Tan

1, 2 b

, Wanxue Hu

1, 2 c

and Jie Chen

1, 2 d

The CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing 100101, China

Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

Corresponding author: Jie Chen, chenjie@psych.ac.cn

Keywords: SPSS, Children’s Anxiety, Parent Attachment, Intergenerational Transmission Of Attachment, Parent-Child

Relationship Quality, Mediating Effect.

Abstract: Objective: This paper aims to examine the way which parents’ own attachment style influences children’s

anxiety and whether this effect is mediated by parent-child relationship. Methods: In this study, the sample

consists of 478 children aged 2-6 and their parents by Convenience Sampling. SPSS was used to sort out data

and conduct analysis, Process was used to verify the mediating effect. Conclusion: Parents’ early attachment

experiences could significantly influence children’s anxiety, and mother-child closeness and mother-child

conflict mediate this effect. Father-child closeness plays a mediating role between father’s attachment and

children’s anxiety, while father-child conflict fails to play a significant mediating role between father's

attachment and children’s anxiety.

1 INTRODUCTION

Anxiety is one of the common emotional problems in

children. When children encounter inner conflicts

and unfamiliar environments, they may experience

anxious symptoms. Children's emotional problems

are associated with the quality of parent-child

relationship (Ainsworth, 1989). The distress and

tension that children encounter in parent-child

relationships are often precursors to children's

anxiety (Sroufe, 1996). Insecure parent-child

relationship is the most important risk factor that

causes child psychopathological problems, Parent-

child conflict would increase children's anxiety, while

parent-child closeness would reduce children's

anxiety level (Masten & Garmezy, 1985); on the other

hand, parent-child relationship is affected by parents'

own attachment style. Attachment styles can be

intergenerationally transmitted within the family

(Verhage Marije et al., 2016). The intergenerational

transmission of attachment shows that parents’ early

attachment experience will affect the attachment

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relationship with their children. Previous studies have

paid more attention to the intergenerational

transmission of mother-child attachment and the

influence of mother-child relationship on children’s

anxiety, while few studies have examined the

intergenerational transmission of father-child

attachment and the influence of father-child

relationship on children’s anxiety.

1.1 Children’s Anxiety

Children’s anxiety refers to the negative emotional

states of tension, worry, insecurity under the

conditions of current or expected threats or pressures.

The most common symptoms of anxiety of children

include reluctance to go to school, fear of separation,

nervousness, difficulty of concentrating, difficulty of

falling asleep.

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520

Zhu, Y., Tan, Z., Hu, W. and Chen, J.

The Inﬂuence of Parental Attachment on Preschoolerâ

Zs Anxiety: The Mediating Effect of Parent-Child Relationship Based on SPSS Analysis.

DOI: 10.5220/0011914800003613

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on New Media Development and Modernized Education (NMDME 2022), pages 520-526

ISBN: 978-989-758-630-9

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

1.2 The Negative Effects of Children’s

Anxiety

Higher level and generalized child’s anxiety will not

only hinder children's physical health, but also affect

their intellectual, emotional and social development.

Enduring higher anxiety in children can also lead to

excessive anxious reactions and other emotional

problems (Liu et al., 2009).

Anxiety has a significant negative impact on

preschool children's participation in group activities

and social interaction. In the kindergarten

environment, anxious children tend to focus on their

own shyness and fear, which makes it difficult to

participate environmental exploration and learning

activities. At the same time, anxiety also inhibits

children's help-seeking behavior and participating

social games, and affects children's development of

social skills and friendship.

1.3 Factors Associated with Children’s

Anxiety

Children's anxiety is associated with many factors,

including heredity, children's temperament, the

characteristics of nurturing caregiver (caregiver’s

personality, parenting style, attachment style), parent-

child relationship and family environment, etc.

Among these factors, parent-child attachment is the

most important factor affecting children's anxiety.

1.4 The Influence of Parent-Child

Relationship on Children’s Anxiety

Attachment refers to the strong emotional bond that

infants established with primary caregivers. (Lin,

1995). Studies have shown that parent-child

relationship during early years, plays a vital role in

the children emotional problems (Lafreniere., 1992).

Children with secure mother-child attachment exhibit

fewer psychopathological symptoms throughout

childhood and adolescence (Schneider et al., 2001).

The children’s fear and sadness in parent-child

relationship are precursors of anxiety in children

(Bowlby., 1973; Kathryn, 2014).

Parent-child conflict would increase children's

anxiety, while parent-child closeness would reduce

children's anxiety level (Wang Xin et al., 2000).

Studies of Chinese children also found that parent-

child insecure attachment was associated with

children's anxiety (Wang et al., 2010). Children with

close parent-child relationship show higher social

skills and fewer emotional problems, while children

with conflicting parent-child relationship tend to

show more emotional problems (Zhang & Zhu,

2011). Both mother-child attachment and father-child

attachment significantly influence children's anxiety,

and children with secure parent-child attachment

have lower anxiety (Zhao & Zhu, 2011).

1.5 Intergenerational Transmission of

Attachment

Adult attachment refers to a psychological state

related to adults' childhood attachment experience.

Adult attachment is not only based on the experience

of parent-child interaction during childhood, but also

on the adults' current evaluation of early attachment

experience (Li et al., 2001). Intergenerational

transmission of attachment refers to attachment styles

can be transmitted from parents to child. Parental

attachment styles can predict offspring attachment

patterns (An 2001). In sum, attachment styles can be

intergenerationally transmitted within the family. In

other words, parents' early attachment experience can

affect their offspring’s attachment relationship with

them (Bernier & Dozier, 2003).

1.6 Research Hypothesis

This study proposed the following hypotheses: (1)

parental attachment pattern is correlated with

preschool children's anxiety; (2) Parental attachment

pattern is significantly correlated with parent-child

relationship; (3) Parent-child relationship plays a

mediating role between parental attachment pattern

and preschoolers' anxiety.

2 RESEARCH METHODS

2.1 Research Sample

The sample consists of 478 children aged 2-6 and

their parents recruited from bilingual kindergartens in

first and second-tier cities in China in October 2018

by convenience sampling. Mothers were asked to

report their children's anxiety, the mother-child

relationship, and her own attachment pattern; in the

meantime, fathers were asked to report the father-

child relationship and his own attachment pattern.

2.2 Measurement

2.2.1 Children’s Anxiety

In this research, children's anxiety was measured by

the anxiety dimension (11 items) of the Social

The Inﬂuence of Parental Attachment on Preschoolerâ

Zs Anxiety: The Mediating Effect of Parent-Child Relationship Based on SPSS

Analysis

521

Competence and Behavior Evaluation Scale-30

(SCBE-30) in preschoolers (LaFreniere& Dumas,

1996), which scored from 1 (never) to 6 (always) and

the questionnaire was filled in by mothers according

to their children's situation in the past two months.

The internal consistency coefficient turned out to be

0.85.

2.2.2 Parent-Child Relationship

The Parent-child Relationship Scale (CPRS, Pianta,

1998) was used to measure the quality of parent-child

relationship. The internal consistency coefficient of

the mother-child conflict turned out to be 0.81, and

that of the mother-child closeness was 0.786, and that

of the father-child conflict was 0.827, and that of the

father-child closeness was 0.835.

2.2.3 Parental Attachment Pattern

The Relationship Structures Questionnaire (Fraley et

al., 2011) was utilized to assess the parental

attachment style. It evaluates the attachment

relationship between parents and grandparents. The

internal consistency coefficient of the maternal

attachment pattern scale was 0.719. while the

paternal attachment pattern scale was 0.784.

3 RESULTS

3.1 Gender Difference of Children’s

Anxiety and Parent-Child

Relationship Quality

T-experimental for independent groups was used to

analyze the gender difference between children’s

anxiety and parent-child relationship quality, the

results are presented in Table 1.

Table 1 Gender difference analysis

Variables

boy

（N=258）

Mean ± SD

girl

（N=220）

Mean ± SD

t p

Children

Anxiet

21.48±5.55 21.93±5.87

0.86

Child-

Mother

Conflict

14.07±4.48 14.19±5.04

0.29

Child-

Mother

Closeness

30.88±4.01 31.28±3.66

1.11

Child-

Father

Conflict

16.92±5.77 16.70±5.34 0.45

Child-

Father

Closeness

28.16±4.54 28.55±4.28

0.95

The results show that there are no significant gender

differences in children's anxiety, parent-child conflict

and parent-child closeness.

3.2 Correlation Analysis

3.2.1 Correlation Analysis of Mother’s

Attachment, Child-Mother

Relationship and Children’s Anxiety

Table 2 shows the correlation coefficients of mother’s

attachment, child-mother relationship and children’s

anxiety.

Table 2 Correlation analysis of mother’s attachment, child-

mother relationship and children's anxiety

Variables

Mean

± SD

1 2 3 4

1 Child-

Mother

Conflict

14.12

±4.74

2 Child-

Mother

Closeness

31.09

±3.86

0.45

3 Children

Anxiet

21.68

±5.70

0.34

0.26

4 Mother-

Grandmot

her

Securit

24.59

±10.9

0.26

0.21

0.13

5 Mother-

Grandfath

Securit

27.59

±11.6

0.26

0.20

0.19

The correlation analysis shows that the mother-

grandparents' attachment security is significantly

negatively correlated with parent-child conflict and

children's anxiety, meanwhile positively correlated

with parent-child closeness. Children's anxiety is

positively correlated with parent-child conflict, but

negatively correlated with parent-child closeness.

3.2.2 Correlation Analysis of Father’s

Attachment, Child-Father

Relationship and Children’s Anxiety

Table 3 shows the correlation coefficients of father’s

attachment, child-father relationship and children’s

anxiety.

NMDME 2022 - The International Conference on New Media Development and Modernized Education

522

Table 3 Correlation analysis of father’s attachment, child-

father relationship and children's anxiety

Variables

Mean

± SD

1 2 3 4

1 Child-Father

Conflict

16.86

±5.58

2 Child-Father

Closeness

28.35

±4.40

0.51

3 Children

Anxiety

21.68

±5.70

0.10

0.18

4 Father-

Grandmother

Securit

28.69

±9.42

0.22

0.28

0.0

5 Father-

Grandfather

Securit

27.16

±9.64

0.26

0.35

0.1

0.6

The correlation analysis shows that the father-

grandparent attachment security is significantly

negatively correlated with child-parent conflict and

positively correlated with child-parent closeness.

Children’s anxiety is positively correlated with child-

parent conflict, but negatively correlated with child-

parent closeness. Father-grandfather attachment

security is negatively correlated with children's

anxiety, while father-grandmother attachment

security is not significantly correlated with children's

anxiety.

3.2.3 The Influence of Parent Early

Attachment on Children’s Anxiety:

The Mediating Role of Child-Parent

Relationship

Taking the mother-grandmother secure attachment as

the predictive variable and children's anxiety as the

dependent variable, the mediating effect of mother-

child relationship between them was tested, and the

results are shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2.

Figure 1: Mother-grandmother security & Child-mother

conflict

Figure 2: Mother-grandmother security & Child-mother

closeness

The PROCESS V4.0 bootstrap test showed that

child-mother conflict had a significant mediating

effect between the mother-grandmother security and

children's anxiety (95% confidence interval [-0.676, -

0.025]). The mediating effect of child-mother

closeness between mother-grandmother security and

children's anxiety was also significant (95%

confidence interval [-0.044, -0.012]).

Taking the mother-grandfather secure attachment

as the predictive variable and children's anxiety as the

dependent variable, the mediating effect of mother-

child relationship between them was tested, and the

results are shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4.

Figure 3: Mother-grandfather security & Child-mother

conflict

Figure 4: Mother-grandmother security & Child-mother

closeness

The PROCESS V4.0 bootstrap test showed that

child-mother conflict had a significant mediating

effect between the mother-grandfather security and

children's anxiety (95% confidence interval [-0.058, -

0.023]). The mediating effect of child-mother

closeness between mother-grandfather security and

The Inﬂuence of Parental Attachment on Preschoolerâ

Zs Anxiety: The Mediating Effect of Parent-Child Relationship Based on SPSS

Analysis

523

children's anxiety was also significant (95%

confidence interval [-0.037, -0.012]).

Taking the father-grandmother secure attachment

as the predictive variable and children's anxiety as the

dependent variable, the mediating effect of child-

father relationship between them was tested, and the

results are shown in Figure 5 and Figure 6.

Figure 5: Father-grandmother security & Child-father

conflict

Figure 6: Father-grandmother security & Child-father

closeness

The PROCESS V4.0 bootstrap test showed that

child-father conflict had no significant mediating

effect between father-grandmother secure attachment

and children's anxiety (95% confidence interval [-

0.026, 0.000]). However, child-father closeness had a

significant mediating effect between father-

grandmother security and children's anxiety (95%

confidence interval [-0.050, -0.014]).

Taking the father-grandfather secure attachment

as the predictive variable and children's anxiety as the

dependent variable, the mediating effect of child-

father relationship between them was tested, and the

results are shown in Figure 7 and Figure 8.

Figure 7: Father-grandfather security & Child-father

conflict

Figure 8: Father-grandfather security & Child-father

closeness

The PROCESS V4.0 bootstrap test showed that

child-father conflict had no significant mediating

effect between father-grandfather secure attachment

and children's anxiety (95% confidence interval [-

0.028, 0.002]). However, child-father closeness had a

significant mediating effect between father-

grandfather security and children's anxiety (95%

confidence interval [-0.059, -0.015]).

4 DISCUSSION

We found that parents’ attachment style can affect

children's anxiety; on the other hand, we also found

that children's anxiety is significantly positively

correlated with parent-child conflict and negatively

correlated with parent-child closeness. This result is

consistent with previous studies. Parent-child

closeness or secure attachment can reduce children's

anxiety, while parent-child conflict or insecure

attachment can increase children's anxiety symptoms

(Wautier et al, 2004; Shamir et al, 2005).

Furthermore, this result is also consistent with the

results of previous studies. Previous studies have

concluded that the parents' attachment pattern is

related to the children's attachment pattern, and the

parents' attachment style may affect the quality of

their attachment relationship between parents and

children (Chen & Sang, 2005; Pan et al., 2021).

Parents with secure attachment are more sensitive

and responsive when interacting with their children,

so they are more likely to establish close parent-child

relationship and have less parent-child conflict.

In addition, this study revealed that mother-child

relationship has a mediating effect on the mother's

own attachment style and their children’s anxiety.

Mothers with secure attachment styles have higher

levels of parent-child intimacy and lower levels of

parent-child conflict, which in turn leads to lower

levels of anxiety in their children.

Lastly, we are inclined to drew the conclusion that

father-child closeness plays a mediating role between

father's attachment and children’s anxiety, while

NMDME 2022 - The International Conference on New Media Development and Modernized Education

524

father-child conflict fails to play a significant

mediating role. This suggests that fathers' own

attachment style mainly affects the establishment of

the intimate relationship between fathers and

children, and then affects children's anxiety. The

possible reasons could be that fathers are less

involved in parenting than mothers in children’s

preschool period, and there is less chance to elicit

father-child conflict. In addition, father-child conflict

may be more associated with children's behavior

problems.

5 CONCLUSIONS

The current study aims to examine whether parents'

own attachment style influences children's anxiety

and whether this effect is mediated by parent-child

relationship. The results reveal the influence of

parents' and grandparents' attachment style on

preschool children's anxiety, and the mediating role

of parent-child relationship (parent-child intimacy

and parent-child conflict) in it, and partially verify the

research hypothesis:

(1) There is a negative correlation between

parents’ early secure attachment and preschool

children’s anxiety, except for the father-grandmother

attachment.

(2) Preschool children’s anxiety is negatively

correlated with parent-child conflict, and positively

correlated with parent-child closeness.

(3) Parents’ early secure attachment is positively

correlated with parent-child closeness, and negatively

correlated with parent-child conflict.

(4) Mother-child relationship (mother-child

closeness and mother-child conflict) mediates the

influence of mother’s early secure attachment on

preschool children’s anxiety.

(5) Father-child closeness plays a mediating role

in the influence of fathers’ early secure attachment on

preschool children’s anxiety, while father-child

conflict fails to do the same.

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