Fathers’ Parenting Behaviors and Malaysian Adolescents’ Anxiety

Abstract

The present study examined the moderating role of family income on the relationships between perceived paternal parenting behavior and adolescents' anxiety among economically and ethnically diverse sample of adolescents. A total of 1,200 participants aged between 12 and 17 years were selected for the study. A self-administered questionnaire, including Quality of Parenting Behavior Scale and Beck Anxiety Inventory-Malay were used to collect the data. The results obtained indicate that there was a significant relationship between paternal hostility (β = .34, p < .001) and paternal monitoring (β = −.29, p < .01) with adolescents' anxiety. A multigroup analysis using structural equation modeling also demonstrated that family income level moderated the relationship between parenting and adolescent outcomes. The findings revealed that paternal consistent discipline and paternal monitoring behavior reduced adolescent anxiety in high-income families. Finding advanced understanding on how the associations between fathers' parenting behaviors and adolescent anxiety could be quite varied when family's financial circumstances were taken into account.

Perceived Parenting Styles and School Anxiety in Preadolescents

“…This trend was stronger in boys, which confirms research indicating that over-controlling, rejecting, over-protective, and concerned parenting is associated with higher anxiety (Ballash et al, 2006;Bogels et al, 2006;Gungor & Bornstein, 2010;Mellon & Moutavelis, 2011). The authoritative parenting style correlated only with anxiety about social evaluation in general, but in girls, students perceiving authoritative parenting style also had lower school anxiety in general, which confirm previous results indicating the role of warmth, consistent discipline and monitoring in reducing anxiety (Ajilchi, 2013;Chapell & Overton, 1998;Jafari et al, 2016;).…”

“…A less consistent relationship was found between parental rejection and child anxiety (Bogels & Brechman-Toussaint, 2006;Hiebert-Murphy et al, 2011;McLeod et al, 2007), although there are studies endorsing the finding that systematic hostility and negative feedback from parents may contribute to a conception that the social environment is threatening (Jafari et al, 2016;Krohne & Hock, 1991). Niditch and Varela (2012) found that rejection from the mother predicts the increase of anxiety in adolescents, while mother control and father rejection and control do not have a significant effect.…”

“…Parents of anxious children are over-controlling, express excessive regulation of children's activities and/or routines, high levels of parental vigilance and intrusion, and discourage independent problem-solving (Bogels & Brechman-Toussaint, 2006); parents are also over-protective and concerned (Pereira, Barros, Mendonc, & Muris, 2014). Consistent discipline and parental monitoring is associated with a decrease of anxiety (Jafari, Baharudin, & Archer, 2016).…”

Perceived Parenting Style and Adolescents’ Social Anxiety in Selangor, Malaysia

“…Parenting style can be further divided into the maternal parenting style (mother) and paternal parenting style (father). In Malaysia, the paternal parenting style was found to be associated with a lower level of adolescents' anxiety; this relationship was moderated by family socioeconomic status (SES) (Jafari, Baharudin, & Archer, 2013). Instead of family SES, this examines other demographic variables (age group and race) in relation to parenting style and adolescents' social anxiety.…”

“…Moreover, Jafari et al 2013described Malaysia's family culture as encouraging a strong sense of family obligation and discouraging displays of hostility during disagreements. However, there is a lack of studies that investigate the relationship between parenting styles and adolescents' psychological outcomes in a collectivist context, including Malaysia (Jafari et al, 2013). Moreover, the effects of parenting styles on an adolescent's psychological outcome is based solely on the findings from the individualistic countries (countries that prioritize the individual over the entire group), which might not be suitable in the collectivist context of Malaysia (Jafari et al, 2013).…”