To determine how parent behaviors affect children's anxiety and coping responses, and to assess how children's behaviors affect parental functioning in stressful medical settings, 50 children between 4 and 10 years of age, who were seen as outpatients in the Pediatric Clinics at Shands Teaching Hospital at the Unviersity of Florida, were videotaped along with their mothers while waiting for the physician in clinic examining rooms. An observational scale of parent/child interaction was used to rate the 5- to 10-minute videotapes. Four classes of child behaviors were observed: attachment, distress, exploring, and social affiliation. Parenting behavior categories observed were informing, restraining, distracting, reassuring, ignoring, and agitation. Results supported the prediction that children in pediatric settings are affected adversely by maternal anxiety. Mothers rated as agitated during the waiting period ignored their children more, and their children showed more distress and engaged in less information seeking. In addition, it was found that mothers who were not highly agitated were more likely to interact with their children and to use distraction to keep them from becoming distressed. Results were interpreted as furthering scientific understanding of the development of fears and coping competencies in children. (BJD)