Early Forms of Controlling Parenting and the Development of Childhood Anxiety

Abstract

We examined the distinct effects of early types of externally and internally controlling parenting (coercion and overprotection) on the development of childhood anxiety, while controlling for other important risk factors. Developmental trajectories of child anxiety were modeled from a Quebec representative sample (N = 2,120 children; 2.5- to 8-years of age). The relative impact of a host of putative child, mother, and family risk factors measured in early childhood was assessed using multinomial regressions. In addition to child shyness, maternal depression and family dysfunction, both coercive and overprotective parenting increase the risk for higher child anxiety. An interaction between maternal depression and overprotection was found, indicating that overprotection only increases child anxiety when maternal depression is high. Finally, maternal overprotection was also found to predict second grade teacher reports of children’s anxiety.