Perceived Maternal and Paternal Psychological Control: Relations to Adolescent Anxiety Through Deficits in Emotion Regulation

The current study compared the differential effects of early adolescents’ perceived maternal and paternal psychological control (as well as their discrepancy) on adolescent anxiety. It also tested whether psychological control leads to deficits in youths’ ability to regulate their negative emotions, and if, in turn, such deficits lead to anxiety. Sixth- and seventh-grade students (n = 214; 59 % girls; 60 % Caucasian) completed measures of perceived psychological control, regulation of negative emotions, and anxiety symptoms. The discrepancy between perceived mothers’ and fathers’ control was also calculated. Although perceptions of mothers’ control, fathers’ control, and their discrepancy were each bivariately related to adolescent anxiety, when considered together, only a larger discrepancy in parents’ psychological control was uniquely associated with higher self-reported anxiety. Further, adolescents’ dysregulation of negative emotions partially explained the relation of both maternal psychological control and the discrepancy in parental control to anxiety. Implications for understanding family-based etiological correlates of anxiety are discussed.