Neural systems that index self-regulation have been associated with mental health outcomes, including risk for anxiety problems, from early in life. Yet, little is known about the environmental factors that may impact the development of neural systems of regulation. Behavioral work suggests that sensitive parenting, or parents’ ability to correctly interpret and respond to children’s signals, supports the development of regulation. Conversely, harsh parenting, or uninvolved or punitive parent behaviors, is thought to compromise developing regulatory systems. We recorded preschoolers’ baseline electroencephalography (EEG) and tested whether individual differences in delta-beta coupling were linked to sensitive or harsh parenting behaviors in mothers and fathers. Using Fisher’s r-to-z transform, we found that preschoolers whose fathers were low (vs. high) in harsh parenting showed greater coupling at parietal electrode sites (z = 2.66, p = 0.00); preschoolers whose fathers were high (vs. low) in harsh parenting showed greater coupling at frontal electrode sites (z = −2.14, p = 0.02). Heightened coupling at frontal electrodes was also visible for children who showed high (vs. low) levels of social fear (z = −2.11, p = 0.02), suggesting that enhanced frontal coupling may be associated with increased risk for anxiety problems. No differences in coupling were seen based on levels of sensitive parenting behaviors in mothers or fathers. Results provide initial evidence that harsh parenting behaviors in fathers are associated with differences in a general index of neural regulation in preschoolers, which may have implications for the development of social fear in early life.

Studies of the role of the early environment in shaping children’s risk for anxiety problems have produced mixed results. It is possible that inconsistencies in previous findings result from a lack of consideration of a putative role for inherited influences moderators on the impact of early experiences. Early inherited influences not only contribute to vulnerabilities for anxiety problems throughout the lifespan, but can also modulate the ways that the early environment impacts child outcomes. In the current study, we tested the effects of child-centered parenting behaviors on putative anxiety risk in young children who differed in levels of inherited vulnerability. We tested this using a parent-offspring adoption design and a sample in which risk for anxiety problems and parenting behaviors were assessed in both mothers and fathers. Inherited influences on anxiety problems were assessed as anxiety symptoms in biological parents. Child-centered parenting was observed in adoptive mothers and fathers when children were 9 months old. Social inhibition, an early temperament marker of anxiety risk, was observed at child ages 9 and 18 months. Inherited influences on anxiety problems moderated the link between paternal child-centered parenting during infancy and social inhibition in toddlerhood. For children whose birth parents reported high levels of anxiety symptoms, greater child-centered parenting in adoptive fathers was related to greater social inhibition 9 months later. For children whose birth parents reported low levels of anxiety symptoms, greater child-centered parenting in adoptive fathers was related to less social inhibition across the same period.