How Parenting Styles Shape Anxiety in Adolescents 

Adolescence is the phase of life from the period of 10 to 18 years, which involves a lot of physical, emotional, social, behavioural and cognitive changes in an individual (World Health Organisation [WHO], 2024). It’s an exciting phase, but at the same time, it can be a confusing and frightening phase of life. What makes this phase critical is that the adolescent’s brain is still maturing. The part of the brain that allows planning, decision-making, impulse regulation and understanding consequences of behaviour is still developing in adolescence.

At the same time, regions of the brain that deal with emotion, motivation and reward start to become more prominent. Due to this failure of two brain regions to reach the same level of maturity as each other, adolescents may display more intense emotional reactions, be more sensitive to evaluation from a peer group and engage in more risk-taking behaviour within emotional and peer group situations (Spear, 2013). This does not suggest that all adolescents do not exhibit responsible decision-making, but they do respond sensitively to emotion and peer group information. 

It is normal for Adolescents to experience anxiety regarding tests and grades, friends, appearance, self-identification, or the future. However, when these experiences are pervasive or intense, they may be associated with difficulty sleeping, trusting oneself, academic success, relationships, and daily functioning. How does this involve a parent/teen relationship? Perhaps the manner in which parents communicate and discipline, how they respond to mistakes, the manner of emotional support they provide, and how they encourage independence may all have associations with adolescent reactions to these stressors.

These four parenting techniques can be characterised as one of four styles: Authoritative, Authoritarian, Permissive, and Uninvolved, based on two primary aspects of parenting, warmth and control (Baumrind, 1971; Darling & Steinberg, 1993; Gorostiaga et al., 2019). But what is the association between these styles and adolescent anxiety? This article explores the impact of different styles of parenting on adolescent outcomes. 

Read More: How Parenting Shapes Adolescent Identity Development

Understanding Parenting Styles 

Parenting styles refer to the emotional environment created by parents while nurturing or bringing up their children, which is not limited to one specific action. Rather, it explains the overall pattern of how parents respond to their children. Two factors are essential to understanding parenting styles. Warmth consists of all the loving terms like love, care, support, understanding and responding, etc. Control, on the other hand, stands for restrictions, discipline, guidance, and supervision, etc. Using the two dimensions in varied ways generates distinct parenting styles (Darling & Steinberg, 1993). 

1. Authoritative Parenting 

Authoritative parents are warmly involved with their child but have rules, limits and demands that are communicated. These parents want the child to achieve independence of thought and behaviour, encourage the child to feel their point of view, while parents provide appropriate guidance. The parent expects good behaviour and the reasoning behind the rule may be shared.

If the teenager performs badly in their test, for example, their parents may ask the teenager, “I can see this performance is a result of you feeling disappointed. Let’s go back and find out why and how this happened so next time you are able to perform well.” The parents have discussed the issue, but not humiliated the adolescent. Baumrind (1991) identified the child of authoritative parents as a more competent and more socially responsible adolescent; later findings on authoritative parenting correlate with fewer internalising symptoms, including anxiety and depression (Pinquart, 2017; Gorostiaga et al., 2019). 

2. Authoritarian Parenting 

Authoritarian parents use a lot of control but low warmth. They may have rules and high expectations, and these are not often discussed or debated by the children, and are likely to result in praise and reward after a mistake is corrected. Criticism of errors or a harsh reaction in children to their failures is characteristic. An example is a parent who, upon reading about an examination with a low mark, simply says, “You should have studied harder.

I don’t want any excuses,” which may exacerbate fear of failing in adolescents whose fears may already have been raised by their own high expectations (Wolfradt et al., 2003; Pinquart, 2017). This doesn’t mean rules and discipline of all types are bad. Teens do need boundaries. The difficulty is most likely to be imposed when the controls are severe, intrusive, or come without warmth. 

3. Permissive Parenting 

Permissive parents are typically loving and approving but have limited rules and regulations. They will avoid denying requests due to the concern of encountering problems with their children. The immediate consequence of permissive parenting might look enjoyable to a teenager due to receiving freedom and love from a parent. Nonetheless, teenagers do have things they must learn through being supervised and disciplined to some extent.

Without rational limits, adolescence would suffer from a lack of discipline, frustration, and difficulties in dealing with time management. If a teenager is free to sleep, to study, and to make phone calls at any time, he might enjoy the freedom initially, but later have problems when the academic environment seems demanding for him. Therefore, emotional approval does matter, while emotional approval coupled with positive guidance is even better (Darling & Steinberg, 1993; Pinquart, 2017). 

4. Uninvolved Parenting 

Uninvolved parenting includes generally low warmth and low control of the child. The basic physical needs can be met by uninvolved parents, but not much emotionally. An adolescent’s experience in such circumstances may be having no one “around” or “available” that they can confide in and/or direct difficult things to them about life. Thus, negative experiences seem more stressful. All studies focusing on different parenting styles, as far as researchers can remember or have concluded, have seen negative correlations with neglected or uninvolved parenting rather than positive ones on emotional effects (Pinquart, 2017; Gorostiaga et al., 2019). 

Read More: Parenting Styles and Moral Development in Early Childhood

Parenting Styles and Adolescent Anxiety 

It is not that simple to state that a particular type of parenting causes adolescent anxiety. Anxiety has a very complex set of risk factors, and the child’s temperament, negative life experiences, peer relationships, educational problems, conflict with family, and school environment also contribute. Parenting is one aspect that can affect the development of anxiety.

A massive meta-analysis combining 1,015 studies done by Pinquart (2017) found that parental warmth, appropriate control, granting of autonomy, and authoritative parenting style in general were generally associated with lower internalising symptoms, while severe parental control, psychological control, authoritarian style, and some kind of neglect behaviour were correlated with higher rates of internalising symptoms, and this relation can be bidirectional, in that adolescents’ emotional difficulties influence their parents’ behaviour.

A systematic review by Gorostiaga et al. (2019) also discovered relevant associations between parenting style and internalising symptoms during adolescence. Nevertheless, it pointed out that this connection varied among different studies; therefore, we could not take parenting styles as a single cause for adolescent anxiety. 

Read More: The Psychological Impact of Parental Fights on Children

Communication and Emotional Support 

Of all of the different components within the parent-adolescent relationship, communication is surely one of the most important. In regard to academics, adolescence, body image, relationships, or career prospects, an adolescent can often fall into the stresses that come about and, at the point of needing to talk about things, may be unable to. When parents listen and talk to them before telling them something they are doing is wrong, adolescents are more apt to confide problems in them, instead of being met with “you’re overreacting” or “that’s not a real problem.” 

Emotional support is not about agreeing with everything a teenager tells you-it is about accepting that the feeling they have is valid, whether you as a parent agree with the adolescent’s perception of a certain scenario or not. For instance, a parent could say to an adolescent, ‘I can hear that you are worried about exams. Let’s explore what steps you can take to plan and revise,’ without dismissing the fear itself.

Wolfhardt et al. (2003) reported an association between higher trait anxiety and high perceived psychological pressure from parents in adolescents. Inversely, a study found an association between lower levels of trait anxiety and high trait perception of warmth from parents; this may imply that adolescents may be more sensitive to the interpretation of their behaviour. 

Read More: Why Do Public Spaces Trigger Parental Overcorrection?

Parental Control and Autonomy 

Control itself can be a force for good. Parents have a job to set boundaries, supervise safety, and teach about responsibility. The real distinction lies between behavioural and psychological control. Behavioural control may relate to behaviours like how much studying your teen does, when they go to bed, how they behave around friends or where they can go.

Psychological control is much more controlling of the adolescent’s thoughts or feelings, things like guilt trips or attempts to make love conditional on your teen acting obediently. Numerous studies have found that psychological control is associated with greater emotional problems (Barber, 1996; Pinquart, 2017). In the United States, adolescents also crave autonomy in their thoughts and decisions as part of development. They want to decide about their friends, their hobbies, their studies and, ultimately, their life choices, including friends, career path and other interests.

However, when parents want to control each of these things, it can be an implicit message that the teen can’t be trusted to do a good job. Baumrind (2005) characterised the relationship of parental authority to adolescent autonomy, and emphasised the importance of thinking of both control and autonomy as a package deal. 

Young adolescents need boundaries to develop healthily, and parents don’t need to abandon them to help an adolescent grow into his/her adolescent-level capacity for decision-making (i.e. “an adolescent needs to be granted increasing levels of autonomy corresponding to his adolescent-like capability to take responsibility). A mother might say a teen has to have structured study times; however, let them decide their research topic and the format their work takes. This grants the adolescent a level of freedom while maintaining the parent’s control over how much studying takes place. 

Parental Expectations and Academic Pressure 

A common thing about parents is their expected notions of what children’s school career and then career should be. But there is nothing wrong with expectations themselves. Healthy expectations can be rather motivating and helpful in forming goals for the adolescent. Trouble may occur when they are not realistic, and love/acceptance seem to rely solely on accomplishments. Teenagers who feel the obligation to get a first in every examination to satisfy their parents can feel immense pressure to perform. 

Authoritative parents hold their children accountable but do not deny that mistakes happen during the learning process. However, blunt criticism combined with continuous comparison of one with other children will only raise pressure (Baumrind, 1991; Pinquart, 2017). So the key issue isn’t just whether they are parents who have high aspirations for their children, but whether their high aspirations are conveyed and if their children will feel loved and worthwhile still-irrespective of whatever they do. 

Read More: Family Dynamics and Disability: Understanding Love, Guilt, and Overprotection

Family Dynamics 

In most families, parenting is not carried out in isolation from the family context. It is often argued that a particular pattern of parental functioning operates not independently but within a given family system. Thus, constant parental discord, communication failures, financial strain, or an insecure family emotional climate might compound adolescents’ experience of stress. 

Also, parents and adolescents influence each other: parenting shapes adolescents, and adolescents, in turn, shape parenting behaviour. For example, an anxious adolescent may require and seek incessant reassurance. Parents often respond to this solicitousness with escalating protectiveness; this, at times, may attenuate occasions for the adolescent to work through challenges. So adolescents’ anxieties and parents’ behaviours influence each other over time (Smetana & Rote, 2019; Pinquart, 2017).

Additionally, Smetana and Rote (2019) stressed that the nature of the parent-child relationship can change with a child’s development. Some conflicts in parent-adolescent relationships are normal and reflect the teenager developing autonomous ideas and views from their parents and themselves; the quality of the parent-child relationship then depends on the child’s management and coping with these conflicts within their families. 

Cultural Context 

Parenting styles should also be considered within the cultural context in which they are occurring. Concepts regarding autonomy and obedience, individual versus family focus, school and work aspirations, and levels of respect are all viewed differently by individuals in different cultures. In many Asian cultures, including Indian families, parents may prioritise their child’s academic performance and future career by staying closely involved in their schooling, friendships, and career choices

We must not immediately assume this high degree of involvement is harmful and controlling. We must ask instead what the Adolescent’s perspective on this involvement is. Parenting behaviours or practices combined with positive and open relationships and consistent monitoring combined with reasonable expectations, emotional support and communication between parent and adolescent, opportunity to make own decisions of course at age-appropriate level, will foster a positive perception and relationship between the parent and the adolescent. 

Whereas if parenting is based upon threats, guilt, comparison or lack of love, then the effect on the Adolescent may be negative. Darling and Steinberg (1993) asserted that parenting style is a frame of reference to understand parenting practices. This implies that parents may show the same behaviour to their child toward a certain subject, but the meaning of this behaviour will be different according to the whole parent-adolescent relationship. 

Parental Mental Health 

Parental mental health can influence the emotional environment of the home and the way they nurture their children. Mental ill-health such as anxiety, stress or depression, especially when combined with financial strain, a troubled marriage or extreme fatigue, can affect the communication patterns in the parent-child relationship. Parents who feel stressed or anxious may become impatient or controlling, even when they are well-intentioned and loving toward their child.

However, this does not mean that parents are to blame for the anxiety felt by adolescents; instead, the relationship is complex and involves ongoing interaction between parents and adolescents. It is not the right thing to place all the blame on the parents. It is important to consider that adolescents are not in an active state and have individual personalities, situations, life events, styles of dealing with difficulties and surroundings they grow up in; therefore, parenting is one influencing factor (Sweeney & Wilson, 2023). 

Read More: Parenting Through Adolescence: Understanding Parents’ Emotional Struggles

Supportive Parenting Practices 

There isn’t a need to be the “perfect” parent with supportive parenting, just as with any family style. There are a few easy things that parents can do to foster a healthier emotional environment (Gorostiaga et al., 2019; Pinquart, 2017). Parents can: 

• Listen more than talk 
• Respect their ideas and concerns 
• Establish clear rules of behaviour and try your best to stick to them 
• Explain the rationale for any major rules 
• Avoid punishment that creates shame 
• Reward effort as well as success 
• Encourage independence when they are ready to test the limits of their autonomy
• Accept that mistakes happen (it is how they learn) 
• Support them through stressful events and tough times 
• Get professional help if their anxiety persists or is overwhelming. 

Conclusion 

Parenting styles and family roles are important aspects when accounting for adolescent anxiety, but these alone do not determine when an adolescent will become anxious. Anxiety has several causes relating to that of personal, familial, social and contextual factors. Parents who have clear boundaries and roles would seem to be best for adolescents; children have a need for parental warmth and nurturing, but also parental monitoring and restriction.

But we cannot simply say that parents are either good or bad. Factors such as family structure and situation, parents’ well-being or culture, and even the individual adolescent itself can influence the behaviour and outcome of parents. Young people need to feel supported, but also have space to grow independent. Good parenting in adolescence cannot be about keeping teenagers in tight control or on a narrow rein; it should mean that parents provide adolescents with the security that they need to take control over decisions, emotions, mistakes and grow towards adulthood.

References + 

• Barber, B. K. (1996). Parental psychological control: Revisiting a neglected construct. Child Development, 67(6), 3296–3319. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1131780 
• Baumrind, D. (1971). Current patterns of parental authority. Developmental Psychology, 4(1, Pt. 2), 1–103. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/h0030372 
• Baumrind, D. (1991). The influence of parenting style on adolescent competence and substance use. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 11(1), 56–95. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431691111004 
• Baumrind, D. (2005). Patterns of parental authority and adolescent autonomy. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2005(108), 61–69. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/cd.128 
• Darling, N., & Steinberg, L. (1993). Parenting style as context: An integrative model. Psychological Bulletin, 113(3), 487–496. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.113.3.487 
• Gorostiaga, A., Aliri, J., Balluerka, N., & Lameirinhas, J. (2019). Parenting styles and internalising symptoms in adolescence: A systematic literature review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(17), 3192. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16173192 
• Pinquart, M. (2017). Associations of parenting dimensions and styles with internalising symptoms in children and adolescents: A meta-analysis. Marriage & Family Review, 53(7), 613–640. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01494929.2016.1247761 
• Smetana, J. G., & Rote, W. M. (2019). Adolescent–parent relationships: Progress, processes, and prospects. Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, 1, 41–68. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-devpsych-121318-084903 
• Sweeney, S., & Wilson, C. (2023). Parental anxiety and offspring development: A systematic review. Journal of Affective Disorders, 327, 64–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2023.01.128 
• Spear, L. P. (2013). Adolescent neurodevelopment. Journal of Adolescent Health, 52(2, Suppl. 2), S7–S13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2012.05.006
• Wolfradt, U., Hempel, S., & Miles, J. N. V. (2003). Perceived parenting styles, depersonalisation, anxiety and coping behaviour in adolescents. Personality and Individual Differences, 34(3), 521–532. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(02)00092-2 
• World Health Organisation. (2024). Promoting adolescent well-being. World Health Organisation. WHO Promoting adolescent well-being