Publication year
2016
Citation Title
Parental autonomy granting and child perceived control: Effects on the everyday emotional experience of anxious youth
Journal Name
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
Journal Volume
57
Issue Number
7
Page Numbers
835-842
DOI
10.1111/jcpp.12482
Summary
Childhood anxiety is associated with a lack of mastering and control. A group of anxious youth were examined to study the relationships among parental autonomy granting, child perceived control, and child emotional reactivity in negative life events. Results revealed that both parental autonomy granting and child perceived control were important for anxious youth to deal with negative life events.
Key Findings
Granting autonomy by parents was not associated with child perceived control.
When negative life events happen, child perceived control was associated with less anxiety and more use of emotion-regulation strategies such as cognitive restructuring (i.e., identify and dispute irrational thoughts).
A high level of parental autonomy granting and low child perceived control were associated with more anxiety and less use of problem solving when children were facing negative life events.
Implications for Military Professionals
Participate in professional trainings to learn more about preventing and reducing youth anxiety, and how these strategies relate to military families
Help military parents develop strategies to cope with their youth’s anxiety, and promote youth-perceived control
Implications for Program Leaders
Provide after-school activities for military youth to promote social support and communication
Offer support groups for military parents whose youth are suffering from anxiety disorders
Implications for Policy Makers
Promote additional research on best parental practices in the context of military families
Continue to support parent education programs that aims to increase well-being of military children
Methods
Data were collected from a large study examining the treatment outcome of pediatric anxiety.
Parental autonomy granting was assessed by observing the parent-youth interaction for five minutes.
Youth completed an assessment over phone where they reported on their perceived control, emotional reactivity (anxiety and somatic symptoms), and emotional regulation strategies in response to daily negative life events.
Participants
Participants were 106 youth who were diagnosed as anxious and their primary caregivers.
The average age of the youth was 11.03 years (SD = 1.46); 55% of them were female.
The majority of the participants were White (91%), followed by multi-racial (5%), Black (3%), and Latino (1%).
Limitations
The age range of the youth in the study (9-14 years) was narrow, so the results may not apply to younger children and older adolescents.
The cross-sectional design of the study makes it difficult to determine the causal relations among parental autonomy grant, child perceived control, and child emotion regulation.
Other parenting practices that may contribute to child emotion regulation were not examined in the study.
Avenues for Future Research
Recruit older adolescents to examine if they benefit from a higher level of parental autonomy granting than younger adolescents
Examine other parenting practices (e.g., emotion socialization) that may potentially influence child emotion regulation
Collect longitudinal data to investigate the causal relationship between child perceived control and parental autonomy granting
Focus
Civilian
Target Population
Population Focus
Abstract
Parents’ early life stressful experiences have lifelong consequences, not only for themselves but also for their children. The current study utilized a sample of military families (n 266) including data from both active-duty and civilian parents and their adolescent children. Hypotheses reflecting principles of persistence, transmission, and proximity as pertaining to parents and their children were examined. The impact of parents’ childhood experiences on their functioning later in life and, consequently, their adolescent children’s well-being were examined. Adults who encountered more stressful childhood experiences, including relatively prevalent and less severe adversities (e.g., verbal conflict between parents) experienced poorer functioning than adults who encountered little early stress. Civilian parents’ current functioning was related to adolescent children’s well-being, whereas the functioning of active-duty parents was generally not related to children’s well-being. Persistence, transmission, and proximity hypotheses were generally supported but with variations attributable to whether an adult was a military member.
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