The Relationships Of Preschoolers’ Anxiety With Their Family Expressiveness And Temperament

Anxiety is one of mood disorders among children and it will continue into adolescence or adulthood if early childhood anxiety problem is not resolved. So it is necessary to pay attention to preschooler anxiety problems. In this study, we used questionnaires were used to examine the relationships of preschooler anxiety with family emotional expression and their temperament. The results were as follows.1) Significant differences were found in active family expressiveness between mothers of different occupations. The level of active family expressiveness of mothers with occupation as a civil servant or worker, and without any occupation was significantly higher than those mothers with occupation as a teacher, a merchant, or a server. The level of active family expressiveness was significantly higher among mothers who looked after children for more time than among those who look after children for less time.2) Significant differences were found in negative family dominance among fathers with different time of taking care of children every day. The level of negative family dominance of the fathers who took care of their children for less than 12 hours a day was significantly lower than those who took care of children for more than 12 hours a day. Besides, the level of negative family obedience of fathers with 21 to 30 years old was significantly higher than those of 31 to 50 years old.3) Significant differences were found in child activity between the mothers with different educational levels. The children’s active level with mothers graduating from secondary schools, vocational schools, high schools, or technical schools was significantly higher than that of children with mothers graduating from colleges or postgraduate schools.4) Significant differences were found in adaptability among children with different ages, parents ages, maternal occupations, and household incomes, the level of adaptability was higher for children with older ages and parental ages; when the mother was a teacher, the children’s adaptability was significantly lower; when the annual family incomes were between 30-100 thousands Yuan, the children’s adaptability was significantly lower than that of children from the family with the annual income of more than 200 thousands.5) Children’s regularity in the early childhood was significantly different on the variables of children’s gender and household income levels:the boy’s regularity was significantly higher than that of girls; the higher the family income level was, the higher children’s regularity was.6) For those children whose father had a higher education level, their avoidance was lower. Boys’ reaction threshold was significantly larger than that of girls.7) Separation anxiety was affected by the main caregivers. The anxiety of children who were cared by mothers and grandparents was significantly lower than that of children cared by other relatives. Body hurt fear was affected by father’s age, and if the father was younger, the children’s body hurt fear was higher; Body hurt fear anxiety, social phobia, obsessive-compulsive, and children’s anxiety were significantly different for children whose fathers had different educational levels:children with fathers of higher educational levels tended to have lower anxiety than those with fathers of lower educational levels. Significant differences were found in compulsive anxiety of children among children with fathers with different time length to take care of their children. Fathers who took care of their children for less than 1 hour a day, their children’s compulsive anxiety was significantly lower.8) Children’s separation anxiety was correlated negatively with positive dominance and positive family expressiveness, and was positively correlated with negative dominance. The anxiety about physical harm was positively correlated with negative dominance and negative expressiveness. Social anxiety was positively correlated with negative dominance and expressiveness. Compulsive anxiety was positively correlated with negative dominance and expressiveness. Generalized anxiety was positively correlated with negative dominance and expressiveness, and negative subordination. Child anxiety was positively correlated with negative dominance and subordination, and negative expressiveness.9) Children’s regularity and adaptability was negatively correlated with their anxiety. Child avoidance was positively correlated with child anxiety; the intensity of reaction was positively correlated with generalized anxiety and child anxiety; adhering degree was positively correlated with child compulsive anxiety; the degree of dispersion was negatively correlated with child compulsive anxiety, generalized anxiety; the reaction threshold was negatively correlated with social anxiety.10) Family Emotional Expressiveness interacted with children’s temperament on the preschooler’s anxiety. For the preschooler with difficult temperament, active family dominance played a significant negative role on preschooler’s anxiety, and active family subordination played a significant positive role on preschooler’s anxiety. The negative family dominance played a significant positive effect on the anxiety of slow-activated preschoolers. For the intermediate children, no significant effect of family emotional expressiveness on preschooler’s anxiety was found.