Autonomy-relevant maternal parenting in early childhood as a predictor of anxiety symptoms in preadolescence
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Amy Leigh McCurdy (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Anne Fletcher
Abstract: Autonomy-relevant parenting practices have been associated with anxiety symptoms later in life, although this finding has most commonly been studied in adolescent populations using self-report measures. The current study used a sample of mother-child dyads living in rural areas under conditions of poverty to understand how psychologically controlling and autonomy-supportive parenting at 58 months predicts anxiety symptoms at 12 years. Infant distress to novelty at 6 months and child gender were investigated as a potential moderators of these associations. Autonomy-relevant parenting measures were assessed via observational coding methods, whereas child anxiety and infant distress to novelty were measured through mother’s self-reports. Results indicated that for girls only, a significant association between the psychological control/autonomy-support measure and child anxiety emerged such that higher autonomy-support predicted greater anxiety symptoms. For girls only, distress to novelty moderated this association – infants who were high in distress to novelty showed a stronger association between autonomy-supportive parenting and later anxiety symptoms than infants who were low in distress to novelty. Findings from the current study provoke further questions regarding bidirectional associations between child anxiety symptoms and parenting practices, and indicate avenues for future interventions to ameliorate anxiety symptoms in preadolescent girls.
Autonomy-relevant maternal parenting in early childhood as a predictor of anxiety symptoms in preadolescence
PDF (Portable Document Format)
966 KB
Created on 5/1/2018
Views: 485
Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2018
- Keywords
- Anxiety symptoms, Autonomy-support, Child gender, Distress to novelty, Parenting, Psychological control
- Subjects
- Autonomy (Psychology)
- Mother and child
- Anxiety in children
- Distress in infants
- Temperament in children
- Sex differences (Psychology) in children