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Panel information
Panel 14. Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

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Anxiety, the most common type of psychological distress in children in Western countries, occurs as early as two years old (Egger & Angold, 2006) and predicts mental health problems and maladaptive coping behaviors in adolescence and adulthood (Rapee et al., 2009). Harsh parental control (e.g., physical control, forceful control) has been associated with children’s anxiety (McLeod et al., 2007), but whether common, milder forms of control predict anxiety is understudied. Frequent during the preschool period, assertive control is parental behavior delivered in a matter-of-fact, decisive, and firm tone and involves a clash between parents’ will and children’s will (Kim & Kochanska, 2020; Xu et al., 2021).

We utilized longitudinal, multi-method data to examine the association between maternal assertive control when children were 42 months and children’s generalized anxiety and separation anxiety symptoms at 54 months. We expected that maternal assertive control would be significantly positively related to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and separation anxiety disorder (SPAD) symptoms. There is some support that mild forms of parental control are positively associated with childhood anxiety (McLeod et al., 2007; Wood et al., 2003). In addition, McLeod and colleagues (2007) revealed in their meta analysis of 47 studies that general forms of parental control were more strongly linked with children’s anxiety than parental rejection. Researchers must continue exploring this avenue and attempt to explain how less extreme forms of control, such as assertive control, influence anxiety outcomes in children (Larzelere et al., 2018; Lin et al., 2020).

The sample consisted of 192 preschoolers (106 boys, 86 girls; Mage = 41.75 months, SD = .49; 75% identified as Non-Hispanic/Latino, 25% identified as Hispanic/Latino; 80% identified as White) and their mothers (76% had at least some college; 25% of family incomes were $45-$60,000, but ranged below $15,000 to above $100,000). In the laboratory, mothers and their children participated in two compliance tasks: the Prohibition Toys (“Don’t touch”) and Clean Up (“Put toys away”) Tasks (kappas = .75 and .96 for Prohibition Toys and Clean Up; see Kochanska et al., 1995). Maternal assertive control reflected instances when mothers gave firm, forceful instructions to children, gave firm yet nonthreatening commands, or moved children decisively or held their hand firmly, to gain children’s compliance with task instructions. Mothers’ control was averaged across the two tasks (r[181] = .17, p < .05). At 54 months, mothers rated children’s GAD and SPAD symptoms using the Early Childhood Inventory (alphas = .73 and .73 for GAD and SPAD; Gadow & Sprafkin, 2002).

Maternal assertive control was significantly positively associated with GAD, but not SPAD, symptoms (Table 1). Assertive control may induce general anxiety symptoms because children do not feel they are in control of their environments. Future research can continue to investigate the role of maternal assertive control in the development of anxiety symptoms in young children.

Author information

Author	Role
Lillian Ramirez Vasquez, Arizona State University	Presenting author
Jodi Swanson, Arizona State University	Non-presenting author
Tracy Spinrad, Arizona State University	Non-presenting author

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