Previous research suggests that higher levels of trait anxiety in adolescents, especially for girls, are a risk of developing one or more anxiety disorders in the future. Furthermore, multiple...Show morePrevious research suggests that higher levels of trait anxiety in adolescents, especially for girls, are a risk of developing one or more anxiety disorders in the future. Furthermore, multiple studies show that certain dysfunctional behaviors of parents such as parental psychological control (PC) and child emotional maltreatment (CEM) seem to be related to anxiety symptoms in adolescents. Therefore, this study aimed to examine risk factors related to trait anxiety, more specifically we examined the role of parental PC, and the potential moderating role of child gender and CEM. A multi-method (i.e., questionnaires, observations), cross-sectional design is used with a sample of 78 adolescents aged between 11 and 17 years, and their parent(s). Two different adolescent-report questionnaires were used to measure trait anxiety and CEM. Parental PC is measured during observations. The hierarchical regression model showed that there is no significant relation between parental PC and adolescent trait anxiety. Furthermore, there was no moderation effect found for both adolescent gender and CEM. In conclusion, this study is one of the first studies that used observational methods to measure parental PC, and which also included fathers as participants. In contrast, the results of this study are not consistent with findings in previous research. A possible explanation for this could be the difference in sample size, method, and the use of a healthy control group. Future research could focus on a combination of observational methods and self-report questionnaires to get a whole view of parental PC.Show less
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relation between parental empathic accuracy (positive and negative emotions) and parental autonomy support towards adolescent children in the...Show moreThe purpose of the present study was to investigate the relation between parental empathic accuracy (positive and negative emotions) and parental autonomy support towards adolescent children in the context of a problem-solving task. In addition, the parent-child bond was researched to determine whether it could have a positive moderating effect on the previously mentioned relation. The present study used data from the healthy control group of the RE-PAIR study, which consisted of 77 adolescents (50 female, 27 male), between the age of 12-17 years old and their 134 parent(s) (73 female, 61 male), between the age of 33-62 years old. Results revealed that parental empathic accuracy of positive or negative emotions is not related to higher levels of observed parental autonomy support. In addition, the moderator analyses have shown that a stronger parent/child-reported bond does not influence this relation. However, an interesting explorative finding was that parents who can infer their children’s emotions can recognize positive and negative emotions. In addition, parents and their children have the same view on their emotional relationship. Furthermore, the present study found that children who are more satisfied with the relationship with their parents, have parents who infer their positive emotions more accurately. Lastly, the study found some exploratory results about the individual perspective that influences the relationship satisfaction. Given these points, we can conclude that parents’ ability to infer their children’s emotions accurately is no indicator of displaying parental autonomy support. The implications of the insignificant study results are discussed in detail.Show less
