The relationship between overprotective parenting and childhood anxiety

Part of the origin of anxiety comes from genetic heredity and the rest is explained by environmental factors. Parental and family characteristics play an important role in the environmental factors of anxiety. Specific parenting styles are linked to childhood anxiety. Several studies showed that parental overprotection can be linked to anxiety in children. However, there are some inconsistent results between the different studies. This inconsistency may occur because previous studies looked at parents and children in general and possibly, this relationship is mainly important in specific groups of parents and children. Therefore, in this study we look at parents’ socioeconomic status and the gender of the child as a moderator for the link between parental overprotection and anxiety in children. This study was part of a larger research project named Cool Little Kids. We used the pre-intervention, baseline data of the Cool Little Kids project in which 170 parents participated. Parents...Show morePart of the origin of anxiety comes from genetic heredity and the rest is explained by environmental factors. Parental and family characteristics play an important role in the environmental factors of anxiety. Specific parenting styles are linked to childhood anxiety. Several studies showed that parental overprotection can be linked to anxiety in children. However, there are some inconsistent results between the different studies. This inconsistency may occur because previous studies looked at parents and children in general and possibly, this relationship is mainly important in specific groups of parents and children. Therefore, in this study we look at parents’ socioeconomic status and the gender of the child as a moderator for the link between parental overprotection and anxiety in children. This study was part of a larger research project named Cool Little Kids. We used the pre-intervention, baseline data of the Cool Little Kids project in which 170 parents participated. Parents filled out several questionnaires regarding parental overprotection, child anxiety and demographic characteristics. The results showed that there was no significant effect between overprotective parenting and childhood anxiety that is moderated by SES of the parents and gender of the child. However, the results did point at the expected directions, although they are too small to give significant results. This means that overprotective parenting may not be as important as we assumed. Results of this study must be considered with regard to several limitations. The sample size of this study is small, parents with low socioeconomic status are underrepresented and the study is based on cross-sectional data. Further studies might focus on other parental and environmental factors such as an authoritarian parenting style that may have a larger influence on childhood anxiety and the influence of parenting styles on childhood anxiety in same sex parent-child pairs.Show less

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The relationship between overprotective parenting and childhood anxiety