Parental anxiety and child's illness experience as factors of a child's anxiety formation.

Introduction: Important reasons for the development of child anxiety are the factor of parental anxiety and the experience of the children's illness. There are differences between the level of anxiety in frequently and rarely ill children, as well as these indicators in their parents. Objectives: To assess the relationship between parental anxiety and anxiety among frequently and rarely ill children. Methods: Sample: 145 people: 46 frequently ill children (mean age - 16.3±0.3), 41 rarely ill children (mean age - 16.1±0.1), 28 parents of frequently ill children (mean age - 44.9±0.8), 30 parents of rarely ill children (mean age -44.5±1.5). Methods: State-TraitAnxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1983), Short Health Anxiety Inventory (Salkovskis, 2002). Results: Frequently ill children significantly differ from rarely ill children by personal anxiety parameter (p= 1.386, p=0.01) and have no significant differences with this indicator in their parents (p=12.825, p>0.05). For rarely ill children and their parents, this indicator has significant differences (p=2.382, p=0.01). Frequently ill children, like their parents, have a high level of personal anxiety, which may not always be correlated with the severity of the disease of children, but has an impact on their personal development. Health anxiety among frequently and rarely ill children has no significant differences (p= 9.265, p>0.05). Illness experience doesn't affect health anxiety in these groups. Conclusions: Parental anxiety is defined as one of the significant components of adverse effects on children's development. The psychological impact on the frequently ill anxious child will be more effective if the parental attitude to him is optimized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]