Parenting practices and their relation to anxiety in young adulthood

Abstract

Two-hundred introductory psychology students and their parents participated in a study of parenting perceptions and trait anxiety. Using student perceptions of parenting, this study replicates and extends research on the relation between parental control/autonomy granting, rejection/acceptance, and trait anxiety. The study was notable for incorporating data concerning both maternal and paternal influence in the model. Based upon prior research, parental control, parental rejection, and parent anxiety were expected to be associated with student anxiety. Further, perceptions of maternal parenting were expected to emerge as stronger correlates of student anxiety than paternal factors. Results indicated that for both females and males, perceptions of maternal control and paternal acceptance proved to have the strongest relations with student anxiety. However, large differences between males and females emerged in the model, with maternal control and paternal acceptance proving to be significant correlates only for female undergraduates. Maternal, but not paternal, self-reports of trait anxiety were related to student trait anxiety, but the relation was marginally significant in this sample.