Wie Babys vom Gesichtsausdruck der Mutter lernen : eine experimentelle Untersuchung zur familialen Transmission von Ängsten

In addition to genetic factors, etiological models of anxiety disorders underscore the im-portance of observational learning in the development of anxiety. The present study ex-amines the transgenerational transmission of anxiety disorders using an experimental re-peated measure design. We used the visual cliff paradigm to study the relationship be-tween maternal emotions and infant's social referencing behavior in an ambiguous situa-tion. Our data, collected from 25 mothers with their 8-13 month old infants, indicated that infants' temperament and mothers' depressive explained a significant amount of variance in infants' behavior. Further, increases in "strain" and "anxiety" by trend had additional effects on infants' behavior. Findings indicate the relevance of mothers' men-tal state and infants' temperament for infant behavior in ambivalent and unfamiliar situa-tions.