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

Abstract

Anxiety, especially social anxiety, is the most common mental health issue among Malaysian adolescents, and parenting styles have been suggested to play a crucial role in the development of adolescents' anxiety symptoms. Therefore, this paper investigates the relationship between Malaysian adolescents' perceptions of their parents' parenting styles and their measured level of social anxiety, including differences by age and race. A total of 327 adolescents from international and national secondary schools in Selangor participated in this study. The Parental Perception Questionnaire and Kutcher Generalized Social Anxiety Disorder Scale for Adolescents were used to measure the adolescents' perceptions of parenting styles and social anxiety, respectively. The results showed no significant correlations between parenting styles and social anxiety. In addition, parenting styles did not significantly predict the adolescents' social anxiety. However, there were significant racial and age group differences in the categories of parenting style and levels of social anxiety. In conclusion, the parenting style received by Malaysian adolescents was not significantly related to their social anxiety. Interventions should focus on high-risk groups of adolescents (i.e., Malay adolescents and those aged 15-16 years old) to reduce their social anxiety.

Single Case Study: Malaysian Male Chinese Young Adult’s Decision to Leave Abusive Romantic Relationship

“…For males, parents would rather socialize them to be independent by having masculine images, such as avoiding from help-seeking behaviours, physical toughness, and social responsibilities, which might further lead to low awareness of mental and physical health (Ainslie, 2017). This can be understood as parents set up expectations towards their children, originating from a parenting style with high demandingness, control, and supervision (Cong et al, 2020;Hoh, 2018).…”

A Review of Parenting in A Multicultural Country: The Malaysian Experience

“…Recently, Cong et al demonstrated the lack of predictive ability of parenting styles on child mental health problems [58]. In addition, parenting style has been studied in other areas.…”

A Note from Handling Editor

“…The article from Muttaqin (2020) discussed how the cultural orientation constructed the Indonesian adolescent identity. Meanwhile, Cong, Aik, Rabbani, and Ni (2020) showed that social anxiety in Malaysian adolescents was not predicted by parenting style.…”