{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,17]],"date-time":"2026-04-17T04:53:13Z","timestamp":1776401593594,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":57,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,17]],"date-time":"2026-04-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1776384000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Little research has elucidated the effects of maternal autistic traits (MATs) on children\u2019s anxiety in normal populations, and their underlying mechanisms. The present study aimed to test this relationship and the mediating role of maternal negative meta-emotional philosophy (MEP) and children\u2019s emotional instability among Chinese people.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>This study recruited 590 mother\u2013child dyads. These mothers have no other children with autism, and they completed the Autism Spectrum Quotient, Maternal Meta-Emotion Philosophy, Emotion Regulation Checklists, and the Chinese version of the Spence Children\u2019s Anxiety Scale. The chain mediation model was tested using SPSS software.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>(1) There are significantly positive correlations among MATs and children\u2019s anxiety. (2) Children\u2019s anxiety was affected by MATs through 3 different pathways: the mediating role of maternal MEP (dysfunction and noninvolvement emotional philosophy), the mediating role of children\u2019s emotional lability, and the chain mediating role of both MEP and children\u2019s emotional lability.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions and limitations<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>This cross-sectional study demonstrates that MATs predict child anxiety through the sequential mediation of mothers\u2019 negative MEP and children\u2019s emotional instability. These findings deepen our understanding of the adverse effects of subclinical autistic traits within the general population. Furthermore, they suggest that early interventions for families with mothers exhibiting high autistic traits should focus not solely on the traits themselves, but on improving maternal MEP. Such a focus would help children develop adaptive emotion regulation strategies, thereby reducing the risk of anxiety. A primary limitation of this study is its cross-sectional design, which precludes causal inferences. Future longitudinal research is needed to clarify the temporal dynamics and long-term effects among these variables.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1748760","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,17]],"date-time":"2026-04-17T04:12:33Z","timestamp":1776399153000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Association between maternal autistic traits and children\u2019s anxiety among Chinese preschool children in the general population: the chained mediation model of maternal meta-emotion philosophy and children\u2019s emotional instability"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Jiyou","family":"Gu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Education, Shandong Normal University","place":["Jinan, Shandong, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yinghua","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Second Experimental Kindergarten of Jiaozhou City","place":["Qingdao, Shandong, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yuxin","family":"Shan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Education, Shandong Normal University","place":["Jinan, Shandong, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hewen","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Education, Shandong Normal University","place":["Jinan, Shandong, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Danning","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shandong Mental Health Center, Shandong University","place":["Jinan, Shandong, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","volume-title":"Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental Disorders","year":"2013"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"122","DOI":"10.1037\/h0034205","article-title":"Role of symbolic coding and rehearsal processes in observational learning","volume":"26","author":"Bandura","year":"1973","journal-title":"J. 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