title: The Effect of Perceived Parent-Child Facial Resemblance on Parents' Trait Anxiety: The Moderating Effect of Parents' Gender.
abstract: Father-child facial resemblance is an important cue for men to evaluate paternity. Previous studies found that fathers' perceptions of low facial resemblance with offspring lead to low confidence of paternity. Fathers' uncertainty of paternity could cause psychological stress and anxiety, which, after a long time, may further turn into trait anxiety. Conversely, females can ensure a biological connection with offspring because of internal fertilization. The purpose of this study was thus to examine the role of parents' gender in the effect of parents' perceived facial resemblance with child on their trait anxiety. In this study, 151 parents (father or mother) from one-child families reported their facial resemblance with child and their trait anxiety. Results showed that (i) males tended to perceive higher facial similarity with child than did females and (ii) males' perceived facial resemblance with child significantly predicted trait anxiety, whereas females' perceived facial resemblance did not. These findings suggested that the uncertainty of paternity contributed to the trait anxiety of fathers, but not mothers.
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Lab of Applied Experimental Psychology, School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Quanlei
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Teaching and Learning School of Education and Human Development, University of Miami, Miami FL, USA.
authors.forename: Qiuying
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Graduate School of Education, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Jianwen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Lab of Applied Experimental Psychology, School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Shenghua
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, School of Teacher Education, Shaanxi Normal University Linfen, China.
authors.forename: Yuanyuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.affiliation: Kindergarten of Beijing Military Region Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Weiting
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cai
keywords: Parent–child facial resemblance; evolution psychology; parent gender; trait anxiety; uncertainty of paternity