Troublesome Parents? An Exploration of the Relationship between Anxiety, Parenting, and Ethnicity

Abstract

The role parents play in their children’s lives has been debated for quite some time now, as paralleled by the nature vs. nurture debate. In this investigation, we look at the relationship between parenting and anxiety during adolescence in order to understand the potential consequences and differences in parenting style later in life. Based on the current literature there is a consensus to the fact parenting plays some role in the manifestation of the anxiety of their children during adolescence, the however full extent of this is not known. The link between ethnicity on parenting and anxiety during adolescence as well have not been well-established among this sample. For this analysis, we looked at the relationship between parental restrictiveness within the Temperament Over Time Study; 366 subjects (169 male, 197 female; 122 minority, 244 Caucasian/White) participated. Data were collected when participants were 12 and 15-years of age. It was concluded there is a statistically significant relationship between ethnicity and parental restrictiveness within the sample. Specifically, minority parents indicated more restrictive parenting strategies than do Caucasian or white families, F(14, 141)=2.442, p = .004. For future research, other confounding variables affecting adolescent anxiety should be measured as well as taking into account cultural implications when studying parenting style, as well as the limitations of the sample population used for this investigation.