Wieke de Vente
Papers
2
Total Citations
75
H-Index
2
About
Wieke de Vente investigates the intergenerational transmission of anxiety, focusing on how parental anxiety shapes children’s emotional development from toddlerhood through preschool. Her research bridges developmental psychology and clinical science, examining how observational learning and social referencing—where children look to parents for cues in ambiguous situations—contribute to fear and avoidance behaviors. In a landmark 2013 study (58 citations), she demonstrated that parental social anxiety disorder prospectively predicts toddlers’ fear and avoidance during social referencing tasks, providing direct evidence for behavioral transmission mechanisms. Her 2017 work (17 citations) further revealed that parental expressions of anxiety interact with child temperament to predict preschoolers’ novelty avoidance, highlighting the interplay between environmental and biological factors. These findings have significant implications for early intervention, suggesting that targeting parental anxiety behaviors could disrupt cycles of anxiety in families. De Vente’s contributions are foundational for understanding how anxious parenting styles shape children’s social-emotional trajectories, informing prevention programs aimed at reducing childhood anxiety risk.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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