Parent–child attachment as a mediator of the relationship between parenting style and gelotophobia among adolescents

Abstract

Fear of being laughed at and family interaction are highly related. Parental over-control and over-protection influence children's excessive anxiety over being laughed at. Conversely, parental attachment is an important index of the parent-child relationship and is closely correlated to children's gelotophobia. However, is it the style of parenting or the outcome of parenting (i.e. attachment) that influences a child's gelotophobia? To answer this question, the present study analysed the relationships between gelotophobia, perceived parenting of children and parent-child attachment, as well as the mediating role of attachment between parenting and children's gelotophobia, using a sample of 373 high-school students. The results show that being highly communicative and close attachment completely weakened the negative correlation between warm, caring parenting and the child's gelotophobia; moreover, being highly communicative and close attachment, together with over-protective and over-controlling parenting, influence children's gelotophobia. In sum, this study indicates that parent-child attachment has a direct and indirect influence on perceived parental care and protection and children's fear of being laughed at.

Extending the Study of Gelotophobia, Gelotophilia, and Katagelasticism in Romantic Life Toward Romantic Attachment

“…For a better understanding of the associations, we conducted a mini-meta-analysis (Goh, Hall, & Rosenthal, 2016) across data from both studies and found a mean correlation of r = .14 (95% CI = [.06, .22], z combined = 3.00, p = .003 [two-tailed]; N = 555) between katagelasticism and anxious attachment. This points toward a small positive association, as found in children and adolescents (e.g., Wu et al, 2015Wu et al, , 2019. The partner effects indicate that the dispositions are widely independent from their partners' attachment styles.…”

“…Similarly, attachment was low in those with high expressions in the joy in laughing at others ( r = −.21/−.22), while the joy in being laughed at was unrelated to parental attachment (| r | < .12). The pattern was replicated in 101 children diagnosed with autism in Wu et al (2019). Again, katagelasticism was unrelated to memories of social support.…”

“…Finally, the joy in laughing at others (katagelasticism) was widely unrelated to anxiety and avoidance in adults. Hence, characteristics of parental attachment (Wu et al, 2015(Wu et al, , 2019 were not retrieved for adults' romantic attachment.…”

“…In line with these findings, Weibel and Proyer (2012) have shown that gelotophobes remember low social support by their family, peers, and teachers while gelotophiles report greater satisfaction with the perceived support. Overall, gelotophilia is associated with greater experiences of parental warmth, and katagelasticism was positively related with a parental style characterized by punishment (Proyer, Estoppey, & Ruch, 2012; see also Wu, Huang, Wang, & Chen, 2019). Similarly, attachment was low in those with high expressions in the joy in laughing at others ( r = −.21/−.22), while the joy in being laughed at was unrelated to parental attachment (| r | < .12).…”

A Systematic Review of “Helicopter Parenting” and Its Relationship With Anxiety and Depression

“…Overprotective and controlling parenting and anxiety: Lastly, there were 1 study that examined both the controlling and overprotective dimension of helicopter parenting simultaneously. This study found a relationship with anxiety (Wu et al, 2018 ).…”