Abstract: Maternal anxiety has become increasingly prevalent in contemporary caregiving contexts, yet the mechanisms through which it drives and maintains overprotective parenting remain insufficiently understood. Addressing this core question, the present review integrates evidence from developmental psychology, clinical research, and affective neuroscience to propose an innovative emotion–cognition–behavior closed-loop model of anxiety-driven overprotection. Specifically, maternal anxiety triggers amplified threat perception and dysregulated emotional sensitivity—supported by heightened amygdala reactivity—which subsequently leads to attentional bias, catastrophic interpretation, and impaired top-down regulation by the medial prefrontal cortex. At the behavioral level, overprotective responses are reinforced through a “relief-as-reward” process, in which the temporary reduction of anxiety is encoded by the VTA–NAc reward circuit, consolidating rigid protective patterns via negative reinforcement. The interaction of these emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components forms a self-perpetuating psychological–neural loop that sustains overprotective parenting. This integrative framework not only synthesizes previously fragmented findings but also provides a coherent basis for future research, including longitudinal validation, cross-cultural examination, and multilevel interventions combining cognitive reappraisal, parent–child interaction training, and neuromodulation techniques.

Key words: Maternal anxiety, Overprotection, Emotion–Cognition–Behavior closed loop, Neural Mechanisms