The influence of parental psychological control on offspring anxiety symptomatology: A cognitive model

• Main Author: WONG, Yu Ping
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2022
• Subjects: Parenting; psychological control; anxiety symptoms; sense of control; cognition; Cognition and Perception; Cognitive Psychology; Experimental Analysis of Behavior
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/426; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/etd_coll/article/1424/viewcontent/MastersThesis_WYP_Final.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Parental control has often been purported to be a risk factor for offspring anxiety. Recent studies however, identify that a particular dimension of control - parental psychological control - is an especially important contributor to anxiety. However, the mechanisms behind this relationship remain unknown. Thus, in this study, we seek to bridge this gap in the literature by examining whether a cognitive mechanism underlies this relationship. Drawing on Beck's model of emotional disorders, we propose that control- related beliefs and negative automatic thoughts would serially mediate the influence of psychological control on anxiety symptoms. Moreover, we sought to examine the unique impact of paternal and maternal psychological control in our model, in line with theories emphasising the distinct roles mothers and fathers play in the family. Using a rigourous structural equation modelling approach, we found that contrary to our hypotheses, sense of control and negative automatic thoughts did not mediate this relationship. It is, however, noteworthy that the indirect effect of psychological control via the perceived constraints dimension of control, and automatic thoughts was marginally significant for mothers. These patterns of results were not found for fathers. Possible explanations for our findings, and future implications are further discussed in the paper.