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
