Parenting Behaviors and Child Anxiety: The Role of Parent and Child Gender

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Anxiety disorders among children are one of the most prevalent forms of psychopathology as it affects between 8-12% of young people (e.g., Bernstein & Borchardt, 1991; Costello et al., 2005). Anxiety in children has been associated with negative outcomes in numerous domains of functioning (e.g., academic, social, home, and personal). Given the global effect of anxiety, it is critical to understand what factors contribute to the development and maintenance of such symptoms. For example, parenting behaviors are influential factors that have consistently been associated with anxiety symptom levels in children (e.g., Wood et al., 2003). Some behaviors identified as important in child anxiety include overprotection, anxious rearing, rejection, and emotional warmth (e.g., Gruner et al., 1999). Specifically, higher levels of overprotection, anxious rearing, and rejection are associated with higher levels of child anxiety while there is an inconsistent association between emotional warmth and child anxiety. While differences in anxiety symptoms by child gender are typically explored (e.g., van Brakel et al., 2006), analyses focused on parenting behaviors in relation to child anxiety typically control for child gender. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine whether there were mean-level differences in children’s perceptions of their parents’ behaviors based on gender and whether the association between parenting and child anxiety differed by child gender. The present study collected data from 153 11- to 14-year-olds in November of 2019. Participants were primarily female (54.2%) and Non-Hispanic White (48%). Further, the majority of participants identified their biological mother (97.4%) and father (82.4%) as their parental figures. Participants completed questionnaires on the following information: demographic background; perceived parenting behaviors (i.e., overprotection, anxious rearing, rejection, and emotional warmth) for each parental figure using the Egna Minnen Betraffande Uppfostran Questionnaire for Children (Gruner et al., 1999); and anxiety symptom severity using the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (Spence, 1997). Based on preliminarily analyses, grade and family standard of living were controlled in all analyses. A 2 x 2 repeated measures ANOVA was conducted examining parenting behaviors in which child gender served as the between-subjects variable and parent gender served as the within-subjects variable (see Table 1). Results revealed that parents used significantly more anxious rearing behaviors with female as compared to male children. However, child gender was not significantly associated with the remaining parenting behaviors (i.e., overprotection, rejection, and emotional warmth). Further, it was found that mothers engaged in significantly more behaviors of overprotection, anxious rearing, and emotional warmth compared to fathers. No interaction effects were observed. To examine whether the association between parenting behaviors and child anxiety differed by child gender, hierarchical multiple linear regressions with interactions were run using the PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2013). Regressions were run separately for each parenting behavior and parent type. Results revealed a significant interaction for multiple maternal behaviors (i.e., overprotection, rejection, and emotional warmth), but not paternal behaviors. Simple slope analyses indicated that the association between the parenting behaviors and child anxiety was significant for males, but not females (see Figure 1 for an example). Clinical implications will be discussed.

Authors

• Jacqueline Pabis, Northern Illinois University
  Presenting Author

• Laura D Pittman, Northern Illinois University
  Non-Presenting Author