Trait anxiety and parental child-rearing behavior: Support as a moderator variable?

Abstract

Based on central assumptions of the social support literature and on formulations concerning the construction of competence and consequence expectancies, a model for the interaction of maternal and paternal child-rearing behavior in the development of children's trait anxiety is presented. Hypotheses concerning this model are tested empirically; 160 boys and 169 girls (aged 12–14 years) responded to the “Erziehungsstil-Inventar” (“Child-Rearing Inventory”), which serves as a measure of child-rearing styles as perceived by the child, as well as to a German adaptation of the “State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children”. General relations between the variables were analyzed by means of product-moment correlations, whereas moderator effects, specifically, were subjected to analyses of variance. Trait anxiety was mainly associated with parental inconsistency. Predicted interactions of maternal and paternal child-rearing behavior could be partly confirmed.