2020 Volume 27 Issue 3 Pages 83-94
This study investigated whether and how parental social anxiety and family function that is perceived by parents and children influenced children’s social anxiety. Children attending junior high schools (n＝697) and their fathers (n＝145) and mothers (n＝314) in Japan completed self-report measures of social anxiety and family function, and the children completed measures of public self-consciousness and interpersonal self-efficacy. Structural equation modeling indicated that family function perceived by children was negatively associated with children’s social anxiety, and interpersonal self-efficacy partially mediated this association. Also, fathers’ and mothers’ social anxiety was negatively related to family function perceived by themselves, and the latter was in turn positively associated with family function perceived by their children. Moreover, mediational analyses indicated indirect effects from parental social anxiety to family function perceived by parents, to family function perceived by children, to children’s social anxiety, although these indirect effects were weak. These findings suggest that family function might play a role in the intergenerational transmission of social anxiety.
