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The Impact of Parental Self Efficacy and Perceived Control on Parental Anxiety in the Context of Stressful Parent-Child Interactions
Moreno-Duron, Daniela
Moreno-Duron, Daniela
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Abstract
The relationship between parental anxiety and maladaptive parenting behaviors is shaped by cognitive constructs that influence emotional regulation. Self-efficacy, or a parent’s confidence in managing caregiving demands, and perceived control, the extent to which parents feel they can influence outcomes in their parenting role, are two critical cognitive constructs that may mitigate or exacerbate parental anxiety. This study examined relationships among parental self-efficacy, perceived control, and anxiety, with a particular focus on the interaction between self-efficacy and perceived control in the context of everyday parenting challenges. We predicted that low self-efficacy combined with low perceived control would be associated with particularly high anxiety during stressful parent-child interactions.Participants included 43 mothers scoring above the clinical cutoff on the SCAARED, with a child aged 7-9 years (M = 7.74, SD = 0.79; 60.5% female). Following baseline questionnaires, participants completed a 16-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) protocol (up to 54 surveys), assessing their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors during stressful interactions with their child. The Inaction subscale of the Parental Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (PAAQ) was our measure of parental self-efficacy (higher scores indicate lower self-efficacy). For each EMA survey, mothers were asked to identify the most stressful interaction they had with their child since the last survey. Mothers then reported on how much control they felt they had over the situation and how anxious they felt at the worst point in the interaction, both on a 1-5 Likert scale. Data were aggregated across all surveys to create overall measures of perceived control and anxiety per participant.A linear regression was conducted to examine the impact of parental self-efficacy, perceived control, and their interaction on anxiety. The model revealed a significant main effect of self-efficacy (β = 0.14, SE = 0.06, 95% CI [0.01, 0.26], p = 0.04), with lower levels of self-efficacy being related to higher levels of anxiety, The interaction effect was also significant (β = -0.05, SE = 0.02, 95% CI [-0.09, -0.01], p = 0.03). A simple slopes analysis was consistent with our hypothesis: anxiety was highest at low levels of both perceived control and parental self-efficacy.Results indicate that parental self-efficacy and perceived control interact to influence parental anxiety in real-world caregiving situations. Understanding how low self-efficacy and low perceived control contribute to heightened anxiety may elucidate the mechanisms underlying maladaptive parenting behaviors. Future research should examine within-subjects effects to capture the dynamic interplay of these constructs over time and utilize larger, more diverse samples to enhance generalizability. Another important future direction will be determining how state parental anxiety during stressful interactions relates to child psychosocial functioning.
Description
These are the slides from a presentation given at Anxiety and Depression Association of America on 04/04/2025.
Date
2025-04-04
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University of Kansas
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Keywords
Parenting, Anxiety, Self-efficacy, Stress, Perceived Control