Associations between maternal and paternal parenting behaviors, anxiety and its precursors in early childhood: A meta-analysis

Abstract

In this meta-analysis we investigated differential associations between maternal and paternal parenting behaviors (overcontrol, overprotection, overinvolvement, autonomy granting, challenging parenting) and anxiety and its precursors (fearful temperament, behavioral inhibition, shyness) in children (0-5years). Two meta-analyses were conducted, one for mothers (k=28, N=5,728), and one for fathers (k=12, N=1,019). In general, associations between parenting and child anxiety were small. Associations between child anxiety and overcontrol, overprotection, and overinvolvement did not differ for mothers and fathers. Maternal autonomy granting was not significantly related to child anxiety, and no studies examined fathers' autonomy granting. A significant difference was found for challenging parenting; mothers' challenging parenting was not significantly related to child anxiety, whereas fathers' challenging parenting was related to less child anxiety. Post-hoc meta-analyses revealed that mothers' and fathers' parenting was more strongly related to children's anxiety symptoms than to child anxiety precursors. Moreover, the association between parenting and child anxiety symptoms was stronger for fathers than for mothers. In conclusion, although parenting plays only a small role in early childhood anxiety, fathers' parenting is at least as important as mothers'. Paternal challenging behavior even seems more important than maternal challenging behavior. Research is needed to determine whether challenging fathering can prevent child anxiety development.

"Daughter and son: a completely different story”? Gender as a moderator of the relationship between sexism and parental attitudes

“…While most parents try to foster the development of self-sufficiency in children, they often limit their right to make decisions about themselves (Becker, Ginsburg, Domingues, & Tein, 2010;Kelly & Dupasquier, 2016). The most common source of these behaviours is concern for their offspring; however, it is also associated with higher levels of anxiety and depressiveness in parents (Erozkan, 2012;Möller et al, 2016). The number of social situations in which the children or youths themselves make decisions increases with age, and this may be associated with intensification of parents' tendencies towards overprotectiveness.…”

The Relationship between Parenting and Internalizing Problems in Childhood

“…The same can be said for maternal autonomy granting, which is associated to anxiety in children older (but not younger) than 5 years [26,43]. On the other hand, parental overprotection, which is characterized by excessively protective and cautious behaviors, is signiicantly associated with child anxiety even in early childhood [43]. Such a inding conirms that distinguishing between these two dimensions of overinvolvement is crucial at this age.…”

“…Needlessly helping or interfering with the child's behavior or feelings thus seems to be salient for the development of anxiety only when children grow older [43]. The same can be said for maternal autonomy granting, which is associated to anxiety in children older (but not younger) than 5 years [26,43]. On the other hand, parental overprotection, which is characterized by excessively protective and cautious behaviors, is signiicantly associated with child anxiety even in early childhood [43].…”

“…Hundreds of studies have addressed the relation between parenting and one or more internalizing problems. Moreover, many reviews and meta-analyses tried to systematize the results deriving from all of the published researches [25,26,30,[43][44][45]. However, most of existing reviews and meta-analyses considered few studies; reported associations without distinguishing among diferent parenting behaviors/child outcomes; did not control for initial levels of internalizing symptoms; did not distinguish among results derived from diferent research designs and failed to describe possible moderators of the link between parenting dimensions and internalizing problems.…”

“…Needlessly helping or interfering with the child's behavior or feelings thus seems to be salient for the development of anxiety only when children grow older [43]. The same can be said for maternal autonomy granting, which is associated to anxiety in children older (but not younger) than 5 years [26,43].…”