2-141 - Direction of Effects in the Relation between Child and Adolescent Anxiety and Parenting

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

This symposium brings together three speakers and a discussant from three continents to present their research examining the relation between youth anxiety and parenting. The first two speakers analyze direction of effects between youth anxiety and parenting over multiple longitudinal time points using autoregressive cross-lagged structural equation models. The first study examines direction of effects between anxious solitude (reported by children and their peers) and overcontrolling parenting (reported by children) in an American sample over the five-year period from third through seventh grade (approximately 8 – 12 years of age). Results primarily support a child-effects model, but bidirectional influences occur after the middle school transition. The second study examines direction of effects between symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD, reported by youth) and parental criticism (reported both by youth and their parents) in a Dutch sample over the six-year period from 13 to 18 years of age. Consistent with the first study, results support a child-effects model. Furthermore, evidence suggests that adolescent-perceived parental criticism mediated the longitudinal association between GAD symptoms and parental criticism as reported by parents. The third study examines the contributions of coercive parenting to social anxiety in a sample of Australian adolescents from 9 to 13 years of age. Results support a parent-effects model in which coercive parenting predicts incremental increase in social anxiety over a 14-month period. Discussion will focus on the extent to which child-effects, parent-effects, or bidirectional models are supported, and under what circumstances such effects are observed.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chair

• Heidi Gazelle, University of Melbourne

Discussant

• Kenneth H Rubin, University of Maryland, College Park

Individual Presentations

• Anxious Solitude and Maternal Over-control from Third to Seventh Grade: Testing Direction of Effects - Presenting Author: Victoria Etherington, Univ of Melbourne; Heidi Gazelle, University of Melbourne

• Adolescent Anxiety Symptoms and the Parent-Adolescent Relationship: Direction of Effects - Presenting Author: Stefanie Nelemans, Utrecht University; William W. Hale III, Research Centre Adolescent Development, Utrecht University, the Netherlands; Susan J.T. Branje, Utrecht University; Skyler T Hawk, Research Center Adolescent Development; Wim Meeus, Utrecht University

• Effects of Autonomy-Restrictive Parenting on Early Adolescents’ Rejection Sensitivity, Social Anxiety, Depression, and Loneliness - Presenting Author: Susan Rowe, Griffith University; Melanie J. Zimmer-Gembeck, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus; Julia Rudolph, Griffith University; Andrew Robert Nesdale, Griffith University