title: Linking Illness in Parents to Health Anxiety in Offspring: Do Beliefs about Health Play a Role?
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).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Our study tested this central tenet of the CB model.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
authors: University of Regina,Saskatchewan,Canada.
authors: Nicole M
authors: NM
authors: Alberts
authors: University of Regina,Saskatchewan,Canada.
authors: Heather D
authors: HD
authors: Hadjistavropoulos
authors: Dalhousie University,Halifax,Canada.
authors: Simon B
authors: SB
authors: Sherry
authors: Dalhousie University,Halifax,Canada.
authors: Sherry H
authors: SH
authors: Stewart
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; D003469:Culture; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Health anxiety; hypochondriasis; illness anxiety disorder; parental illness; somatic symptom disorder