| dc.description.abstract | Although a significant amount of research has linked maternal anxiety and child anxiety, much of the research has addressed early childhood and young adulthood. Further, the potential role of overcontrolling and overprotective parenting in this link has been unclear. The current study examined overprotective parenting behaviors as a mediator for the association between maternal anxiety and child anxiety in a geographically diverse sample of 76 mothers of 11- to- 14-year-old children residing in the United States. Mothers completed surveys online through Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Maternal anxiety, use of overprotective parenting behaviors, and child anxiety were assessed using standardized measures. It was hypothesized that maternal anxiety would be positively correlated with child anxiety, maternal anxiety would be positively correlated with overprotective parenting behaviors, and that overprotective parenting behaviors would be positively correlated with child anxiety. Further, it was hypothesized that overprotective parenting behaviors would mediate the association between maternal anxiety and child anxiety. The results were as follows. As expected, maternal anxiety and overprotective parenting behaviors were positively correlated. However, maternal anxiety and child anxiety were not significantly correlated, and overprotective parenting behaviors and child anxiety were not significantly correlated. Thus, there was only partial support of the first three hypotheses. Further, bootstrapping analyses demonstrated that overprotective parenting behaviors did not mediate the association between maternal anxiety and child anxiety. In order to further explore these associations, child sex and age were included as moderators within the mediation model, again using bootstrapping analyses. However, this model was non-significant. Findings support previous research on the link between maternal anxiety and the use of overprotective parenting behaviors. However, the fact that neither maternal anxiety nor overprotective parenting behaviors predicted child anxiety, highlights the need for further research, particularly in early adolescence. Since rates of anxiety increase during adolescence, it is especially important for future research to explore these complex associations. | |
