(PS5-29) Examining the Contributions of Dimensions of Psychologically Controlling Parenting and Parental Acceptance-rejection to Youth Anxiety

Psychologically controlling parenting (PCP), comprising parenting that invalidates the youth’s feelings, constrains verbal expression, criticizes, and uses guilt-inducing and threatening behavior to gain compliance with parental directives (Mageau et al., 2015), has been broadly linked to increased internalizing problems amongst youth (Soenens et al., 2009). Similarly, parental acceptance-rejection, comprised of warmth/affection, hostility/aggression, indifference/neglect, and undifferentiated rejection, has also been broadly linked to anxiety in youth (Miranda et al., 2016). However, the unique contributions of the specific facets underlying these constructs have not been examined in terms of their contributions to anxiety in youth. This study sought to (1) examine the unique contributions of each facet of PCP and acceptance-rejection to anxiety, and (2) ascertain whether perceived acceptance-rejection might be one factor underlying the previously observed link between PCP parenting and youth anxiety. The PCP scale of the Perceived Parental Autonomy Support Scale (P-PASS; Mageau et al., 2015) and the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ; Rohner, 2005) were administered to a sample of 446 youth aged 14-19 (25.8% aged 14-17; 29.2% male) along with the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS; Chorpita et al., 2000). While all 3 PCP subscales were correlated significantly with anxiety (threats to punish = .11, performance pressures = .15, guilt-inducing criticism = .27), results of the Meng test indicated that the correlation for guilt criticism was significantly greater than those for threat (z = -3.60, p = 0.0003) and performance (z = -2.68, p = 0.0073). Although all 4 acceptance-rejection scales were significantly correlated with anxiety (warmth/affection = -.26, hostility/aggression = .36, indifference/neglect = .34, undifferentiated rejection = .35), only the warmth-anxiety correlation differed significantly from the other observed correlations. To examine the unique contributions of each facet to anxiety, all subscales of each construct were entered simultaneously into a regression equation predicting anxiety. Examined in this manner only the guilt PCP scale (b=.29, t=4.68, p< .001) and the indifference/neglect PARQ scale (b=.262, t=2.50, p< .05) remained significant predictors. When perceptions of indifference/neglect were examined as one variable potentially underlying the guilt-anxiety relationship, significant mediation was observed (.17, SE=.04, 95% CI =.0973, .2587). This model was invariant across age and gender. These findings suggest a new level of specificity for dimensions of psychologically controlling parenting and perceptions of acceptance-rejection related to youth anxiety and elucidate specific features of parenting (e.g., attention, interest in, and enjoyment of the youth’s presence) that underlie the relationship of guilt-inducing criticism and anxiety in youth. Future applications of continued work in this area could inform parent-based youth anxiety interventions by targeting parental guilt-inducing criticisms to attenuate youth perceptions of parental indifference, thereby effecting reduction in the experience of anxiety.