Maternal warmth has been identified as a contributing factor to the development of child anxiety; however, no studies to date have examined observed maternal warmth longitudinally in this relationship. The present study addressed this knowledge gap by examining the simultaneous development of maternal warmth and child anxiety over time (between-person effects using latent growth curve modeling) and the directionality of associations (within-person effects using autoregressive latent trajectory modeling). Participants included 753 mothers and children. Between-person effects indicated that lower initial levels of anxiety were related to greater levels of maternal warmth over time. Within-person effects showed that maternal warmth in grade 1 predicted subsequent decreases in child anxiety in grade 2 (i.e., a parent effect). Present findings demonstrate the importance of maternal warmth in the early school-age years for decreasing subsequent child anxiety.

母亲的温暖已被确定为儿童焦虑发展的一个促成因素；然而，迄今为止，还没有研究在这种关系中纵向研究观察到的母性温暖。本研究通过检查随着时间的推移母亲温暖和儿童焦虑的同时发展（使用潜在增长曲线模型的人际效应）和关联的方向性（使用自回归潜在轨迹模型的人内效应）来解决这一知识差距。参与者包括753名母亲和儿童。人际效应表明，随着时间的推移，较低的初始焦虑水平与更高水平的母性温暖有关。人内效应表明，1 年级的母亲温暖预示着 2 年级儿童焦虑的后续减少（即父母效应）。