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Family Accommodation and Separation Anxiety: The Moderating Role of Child Attachment

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Abstract

Family accommodation, or changes in parental behavior aimed at avoiding or alleviating child anxiety-related distress, contributes to the severity of anxiety symptoms, and is most strongly associated with separation anxiety. This study examined whether child attachment security, characterized as the degree to which children perceive their parents to be reliable, available, and communicative, moderates the association between family accommodation and separation anxiety symptoms, and whether this moderation is specific to separation anxiety among other anxiety symptoms. In a sample of clinically anxious children (N = 243, 6–12 years), family accommodation was significantly positively associated with separation anxiety symptoms across levels of attachment security. Family accommodation was more strongly associated with parent-reported separation anxiety symptoms in children with lower attachment security compared with those with higher attachment security. No significant moderation effect emerged for other anxiety symptoms. Findings enhance understanding of the role of attachment within family accommodation of child anxiety.

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Funding

This study was funded by National Institute of Mental Health grants R61MH115113 and R33MH115113 to Dr. Lebowitz. The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yale Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Gillian A. Weeks, Elcin Sakmar, Taylar A. Clark, Anastasia M. Rose, Wendy K. Silverman & Eli R. Lebowitz

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  1. Gillian A. Weeks
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  2. Elcin Sakmar
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  3. Taylar A. Clark
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Gillian A. Weeks, Elcin Sakmar, Taylar A. Clark, and Anastasia M. Rose. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Gillian A. Weeks and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Gillian A. Weeks.

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This study was performed in line with the principals of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Yale Human Investigation Committee.

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Informed consent was obtained from all legal guardians and assent was obtained from all children.

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Weeks, G.A., Sakmar, E., Clark, T.A. et al. Family Accommodation and Separation Anxiety: The Moderating Role of Child Attachment. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-024-01705-2

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