How parents' moment-to-moment emotions shape anxiety in young children
Official title: Parent-to-child anxiety transmission in early childhood: Capturing in-the-moment mechanisms through emotion modeling and biological synchrony
Funded at Pennsylvania State University, the · NIH-11513888 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at how parents' real-time emotions and biological responses relate to anxiety in children from infancy through middle childhood.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Pennsylvania State University, the NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (University Park, United States) |
| Project start | July 1, 2022 |
| Project end | March 31, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $19,539 |
| NIH project number | 3R01MH130007-05S1 |
| Project ID | NIH-11513888 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Families with a child roughly between birth and 11 years old, especially where a parent experiences anxiety or frequent distress, would be ideal candidates.
✕Less likely to help
People without young children or those seeking an immediate clinical treatment should not expect direct health benefits from participating in this observational research.
What this research studies
If you join, researchers will follow families with young children over several years and record many moment-by-moment parent–child interactions. They will measure emotional expressions and biological responses (for example heart rate and skin conductance) in both parent and child to capture dyadic synchrony. They will also observe how parents show and cope with fear or stress so they can see how children mirror or learn these patterns (emotion modeling). The team will combine behavioral coding, physiological data, and repeated observations to link these momentary patterns to children's developing anxiety.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: Could identify specific parent–child interaction patterns to target in interventions that prevent or reduce anxiety in young children.
How similar studies have gone: Prior studies link parental behaviors to child anxiety, but using fine-grained, real-time biological synchrony and emotion-modeling measures is a relatively new and expanding approach.
Where this research is happening
-
Pennsylvania State University, the
University Park, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Perez-Edgar, Koraly E — Pennsylvania State University, the
- Study coordinator: Perez-Edgar, Koraly E
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.