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Linking Illness in Parents to Health Anxiety in Offspring: Do Beliefs about Health Play a Role?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2014

Nicole M. Alberts ,
Heather D. Hadjistavropoulos ,
Simon B. Sherry  and
Sherry H. Stewart
Nicole M. Alberts
Affiliation:
University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Heather D. Hadjistavropoulos*
Affiliation:
University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Simon B. Sherry
Affiliation:
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
Sherry H. Stewart
Affiliation:
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
*
Reprint requests to Heather Hadjistavropoulos, University of Regina, Psychology, 3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, Saskatchewan S4S 0A2, Canada. E-mail: hadjista@uregina.ca
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Abstract

Background: The cognitive behavioural (CB) model of health anxiety proposes parental illness leads to elevated health anxiety in offspring by promoting the acquisition of specific health beliefs (e.g. overestimation of the likelihood of illness). Aims: Our study tested this central tenet of the CB model. Method: Participants were 444 emerging adults (18–25-years-old) who completed online measures and were categorized into those with healthy parents (n = 328) or seriously ill parents (n = 116). Results: Small (d = .21), but significant, elevations in health anxiety, and small to medium (d = .40) elevations in beliefs about the likelihood of illness were found among those with ill vs. healthy parents. Mediation analyses indicated the relationship between parental illness and health anxiety was mediated by beliefs regarding the likelihood of future illness. Conclusions: Our study incrementally advances knowledge by testing and supporting a central proposition of the CB model. The findings add further specificity to the CB model by highlighting the importance of a specific health belief as a central contributor to health anxiety among offspring with a history of serious parental illness.

Keywords

Health anxietyhypochondriasisillness anxiety disordersomatic symptom disorderparental illness
Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 44 , Issue 1 , January 2016 , pp. 18 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2014 

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