{"id":2859,"date":"2025-11-27T08:07:59","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T06:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/invest\/?p=2859"},"modified":"2025-11-27T09:34:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T07:34:22","slug":"how-mothers-individual-psychological-flexibility-shapes-childrens-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/invest\/2025\/11\/27\/how-mothers-individual-psychological-flexibility-shapes-childrens-anxiety\/","title":{"rendered":"How Mothers\u2019 Individual Psychological Flexibility Shapes Children\u2019s Anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Only-Child vs. Multi-Child Families<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Bingkun zhang<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anxiety starts young<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Preschoolers are in a rapid phase of development. Their emotions fluctuate more than adults\u2019, and stress or conflict can more easily trigger anxiety. Anxiety ranges from worry and unease to fear or even intense fear, sometimes accompanied by bodily tension like a racing heart or tummy aches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Common faces of preschool anxiety include separation anxiety, social fear, fear of physical harm, obsessive\u2013compulsive symptoms, and generalized anxiety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When anxiety becomes excessive and persistent, it can impair social skills, school adjustment, and peer relations\u2014showing up as restlessness, inattention, school refusal, social avoidance, and repetitive\/compulsive behaviors. Without timely support, anxiety that appears in the preschool years can persist into adolescence and adulthood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bingkun<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A closer look at mothers\u2019 psychological flexibility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Psychological flexibility is an important aspect of mental health and originates from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a behavioral therapy based on functional contextualism and Relational Frame Theory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Individuals with higher psychological flexibility are better able to stay aware, accept difficult emotions, and act in line with their values, and as a result they respond to problems and changes more calmly and effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research shows that when a mother\u2019s individual psychological flexibility is lower, her parental psychological flexibility also tends to be lower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In everyday interactions, she is less able to notice and accept negative emotions and tends to adopt more ineffective parenting behaviors such as control or avoidance, thereby leading preschool children to experience more anxiety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only-child vs. multi-child: does the PF\u2013anxiety link change?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the process of raising an only child, mothers may show more control and interference rather than accepting the child\u2019s autonomy, causing the child to develop stronger dependence and poorer independence, which adversely affects psychological and behavioral outcomes and leads to greater anxiety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In raising non\u2013only children, mothers may display more neglect and differential treatment, and non\u2013only children need to compete with siblings for parents\u2019 love and attention, thereby developing more inferiority and anxiety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These dynamics could shape how strongly maternal individual psychological flexibility relates to children\u2019s anxiety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our research questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n