Overprotective parenting and social anxiety in adolescents: The role of emotion regulation

Abstract

The present study sought to examine the underlying mechanisms through which overprotective parenting relates to social anxiety symptoms in adolescents. Specifically, we tested whether the adolescents’ emotion regulation strategies of dysregulation, suppression, and integration, played an intervening role in the association between perceived maternal and paternal overprotection and social anxiety symptoms in adolescents. A sample of 278 Swiss adolescents filled out questionnaires assessing perceived overprotective parenting, social anxiety symptoms and emotion regulation. Results indicated that perceived overprotective parenting was significantly associated with adolescents’ social anxiety symptoms. Furthermore, structural equation modeling analyses indicated that emotional dysregulation, in particular, intervenes in the association between both maternal and paternal overprotection and social anxiety. These findings highlight emotion regulation difficulties as a potential mechanism underlying the association between parental overprotection and social anxiety, suggesting that adolescents’ maladaptive emotion regulation strategies as well as overprotecting parenting could be targeted when treating social anxiety symptoms.