Genetics may determine your overall vulnerability or susceptibility to anxiety. Children may be born more sensitive, reactive, with lower distress tolerance, but other factors such as temperament, environmental stress, and health must intervene to tip the scales. While children of anxious parents are seven times more likely to develop an anxiety disorder than children of non-anxious parents, genetics accounts for only 30-40% of all transmission. There are likely multiple genes that contribute to a child's anxiety disorder, not one identifiable gene for anxiety. The genes affect how different cells in the body's alarm system or fight or flight response operates, including threshold for reaction and amount of time taken to reset.