A study conducted by Dalhousie University’s department of psychiatry in Nova Scotia, Canada, monitored diagnoses of a lifelong anxiety disorder among 398 children between the ages of 5 and 21 from February 1, 2013, to January 31, 2020. Study participants came from families where both parents have an anxiety disorder, one parent has an anxiety disorder, and those where neither parent has an anxiety disorder.
The study, published July 12, found that children in families with no prior diagnoses of anxiety disorder had the least anxiety diagnoses. Children from families with one parent diagnosed were more likely to be diagnosed, and children from families with both parents diagnosed were most likely to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.
Data showed the percent of male children whose father was diagnosed with anxiety were more likely to be diagnosed themselves, and female children whose mother was diagnosed were more likely to have an anxiety diagnosis as well.
The reseachers hypothesized that treating parents with anxiety disorders may reduce the occurance of anxiety disorders in children, particularly same-sex children.
