Running head: PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTROL AND ANXIOUS ADJUSTMENT

Parental Psychological Control and Childhood Anxious Adjustment Shawna Sjoquist University of Calgary

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTROL AND ANXIOUS ADJUSTMENT Introduction and Literature Review Research indicates that as much as 20% of children will manifest emotional difficulties during the commencement of their kindergarten year. (Rimm-Kaufman, Pianta, & Cox, 2000). Manifestation of emotional difficulties presenting during this time have the potential to undermine adjustment to the school environment (Rimm-Kaufman et al., 2000). Knowledge of

parental psychological control and related influence on the social emotional functioning of young children in child care and school settings is essential for the development of effective interventions (McMcShane & Hastings, 2009). Effective, reliable and valid measurement tools able to evaluate the effects of psychological control in young children are presently minimally existent (Hastings & Rubin, 1999). In recent research, McShane and Hastings (2009) evaluated the reliability and validity of a new measure of psychological control, the New Friends Vignettes (NFV), and examined the links between maternal and paternal socialization and preschoolers internalizing problems and anxious adjustment in early child care settings. Review of past and recent literature reveals evidence that indicates anxious parents interact differently with their children than non anxious parents (Lindhout et al. 2006; WoodruffBorden, Morrow, Bourland & Cambron, 2002). Additionally, the finding that parental behavior and cognitions influence child anxiety has been extensively studied (Bgels, van Dongen & Muris 2003; Bgels & Brechman-Toussaint 2006; Ginsburg, Grover & Ialongo, 2004; Hudson & Rapee 2001; McLeod, Wood & Weisz, 2007). Preliminary research indicates that parenting variables contribute to the development and maintenance of childhood anxiety though the magnitude of this contribution and analysis of specific parenting variables remain inconclusive (McLeod et al., 2007). Mothers of anxious children have been found to have different expectations about how upset their child will become in stressful situations than mothers of non

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTROL AND ANXIOUS ADJUSTMENT anxious children (Kortlander, Dendall & Panichelli-Mindel, 1997). A recent meta-analysis conducted by McLeod and colleagues (2007) reported a consistent associate between anxiety related difficulties and parent over-involvement and reluctance to support developmental autonomy. Further, the relationship between the anxious adjustment of mother and child has been shown to be partially mediated maternal expectations of the childs estimate of threat in unfamiliar situations (Creswell & OConnor, 2006). Thus, further research regarding environments associated with increased expectations and potential provocation of anxiety are warranted.

Parental management of the social behaviors exhibited by their young children have been found to predict the development of internalizing problems (Rubin, Burgess & Hastings, 2002). Further, childhood displays of potential vulnerability, such as transitioning away from the home, may be mismanaged by parental psychological control (Rubin, Nelson, Hastings & Asendorpf, 1999). Recent research has identified the presence of subdivided categories of psychological control (Bayer, Sanson & Hemphill, 2006; Rapee, 1997; Rubin et al., 2002). Overprotection has been defined as the intrusive actions occurring in the parent-child bond, such as restrictions on independent activities, excessive affection, and unnecessary micro-management (Rubin et al., 2002). Critical control has been defined as threats to the childs security or the childs self confidence, through derisive and critical responses, rejection, negative labeling, and or emotional manipulation (Rubin et al., 2002). Specifically, a parent may feel concern or anxiety which ignites a motivation to be overprotective, excessive comforting, the tendency to excessively limit child exposure to challenging events or intrusively manage situations perceived to be outside of the child skill set (Rubin et al., 2002). Conversely, parents may not favor childrens displays of emotional vulnerability and therefore react with disappointment, frustration or anger (Rubin &

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTROL AND ANXIOUS ADJUSTMENT Mills, 1990). Past research indicates that parental psychological control may be associated with internalizing problems of school aged children (Barber & Buehler, 1996). Further, recent research has demonstrated that preschoolers development of internalizing problems may be predicted by maternal parenting that is historically overprotective in nature (Bayer et al., 2006). Findings linking psychological control and the internalizing problems of young children have been inconsistent (Rubin, Burgess & Hastings, 2002) thus the need for further study in this area is warranted. Several studies have found that mothers who use more psychological control have young children who appear more inhibited, shy, withdrawn, or anxious (LaFreniere & Dumas, 1992; Rubin, Hastings, Stewad, Henderson, & Chen, 1997). Further, maternal

overprotection and critical control have been found to predict the development of social reticence (Rubin et al., 2002). As discussed, McShane & Hastings (2009) sought to address the notable lack of psychometrically sound parent report measures of psychological control of young childrens social behavior, and demonstrate the NFVs efficacy for predicting childrens internalizing problems and anxious social difficulties. Though the research provided by McShane & Hastings (2009) has provided several substantial results, the authors note that future research examining the consistency of parental psychological control across behaviors and contexts. The purpose of the present study will be to replicate the research findings of McShane & Hastings (2009), provide further verification of found associations and benefits of the NFV and evaluate the consistency of psychological control across childrens behaviors and contexts. Research Questions (Current Study) The current study is designed to investigate the relation between parental psychological control and the risk for anxious adjustment in Kindergarten age children. Previously McShane

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTROL AND ANXIOUS ADJUSTMENT and Hastings (2009) attempted to demonstrate a new measures, the New Friends Vignettes,

efficacy for predicting childrens internalizing and anxious social difficulties by analyzing use of the measure with a sample of preschool age children taken from several Canadian daycare settings. The current study will seek to validate and extend the research findings presented by McShane and Hastings (2009). Research has indicated that anxiety and internalizing difficulties in young children often present in the initial transitions away from the home (Hirshfeld-Becker & Biederman, 2002). Conceivably, these initial transitions away from the home are predominately characterized by initial experiences with daycare and or the commencement of a Kindergarten program. It is a well known fact that some children have the potential to have difficulty adjusting to the school atmosphere (Rimm-Kaufman, Pianta, & Cox, 2000). Though McShane and Hastings (2009) used a sample of preschool age children the current study recognizes that the kindergarten classroom is characteristically different from preschool and other child care environments. Specifically, though children may have previously attended or experienced out of home care, children beginning kindergarten are presented with a new environment, a larger group, a group of initially unfamiliar peers as well as increased academic demands (Ladd & Price, 1987). Additionally, kindergarten classrooms characteristically have higher child to staff ratios than do child care and or preschool centers (Holloway & ReichartErickson, 1988; McCartney et al., 1997). Further, increased demands of the formal school environment can exacerbate the potential for adverse anxious adjustment (Evans, 2001). Given the identified research, the current study is interested in investigating parental psychological control and risk for anxious adjustment where increased academic demands, larger groups and larger child staff ratios are a factor. McShane and Hastings (2009) offered several findings that the current study will attempt to replicate. First, McShane and Hastings (2009) identified that the

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTROL AND ANXIOUS ADJUSTMENT NFV provided an effective measure for the identification of overprotective and critical

components of parental psychological control. Second, maternal and paternal overprotection and critical control was found to predict more anxious adjustment and internalizing problems. Third, the most relevant form of psychological control differed for parents. More specifically, childrens social emotional functioning was strongly associated with fathers critical control and the mothers overprotection respectively. Fourth, results indicated that fathers of children with higher levels of anxious adjustment and internalizing difficulties reported increasing levels of psychological control over time. Lastly, in addition to the attempted replication and validation of the above findings, the current study will attempt to evaluate the effects of parental psychological control on anxious adjustment of children at the kindergarten level where it is presumed the risk for anxious adjustment is increased. Methods Participants Participants included in this study comprise a random sample of Kindergarten children taken as representative of the greater Edmonton Kindergarten population. Recruitment occurred in three consecutive years during the spring and summer months preceding commencement in a Kindergarten program. Those participants meeting the following inclusionary criteria were considered for study: child is enrolled to attend a Kindergarten program, parents or caregivers of the child participant have a sound working knowledge of English and the children participant has a working knowledge of English, French or Spanish. Those participants meeting the following exclusionary criteria are removed for study consideration: child participant having a severe mental or physical health problem such as pervasive developmental disorder and or Down

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTROL AND ANXIOUS ADJUSTMENT syndrome, the child participant is enrolled to repeat their initial Kindergarten year and or the primary caregiver of the child participant cannot be categorized as a mother or father. For

example, the primary caregiver is a grandparent. A simple random sampling method will be used to identify participants that will be contacted to study. The superintendent of an Edmonton School District has provided an enrollment directory from which a table of or random numbers will be used to identify a random sample of participants. From the 2,000 identified Kindergarten enrollments 20% of the identified enrollments will be contacted for study and a simple random sample of 400 participants will be identified. Once the sample has been selected and research participants have consented to participation the sample will be analyzed to identify number of mothers, fathers, child gender, child age at recruitment, parent age at recruitment, primary parental language, ethnicity, educational status, income class and family status such as single or two parent family status. Instrumentation Several instruments will be used to measure and collect the outcomes of interest. First, the New Friends Vignettes is a parent report measure designed to evaluate the manner in which a parent responds to their childs initially shy reaction to a novel social engagement with a peer group (McShane & Hastings, 2009). The NFV instrument is designed to assess overprotective parenting, critical control and appropriate support and is formed based on research on psychological control presented by Rubin, Burgess and Hastings (2002) and Hudson and Rapee (2001). Specifically, this research identifies the manner in which psychologically controlling parenting practices are manifested by the parent and characterizes the classification schema of overprotection, critical control and appropriate support (Rubin et al., 2002; Hudson & Rapee, 2001). Prior to its use, the measure was subjected to developmental procedures designed to

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTROL AND ANXIOUS ADJUSTMENT ensure appropriateness and clarity of the measure that included piloting, academic reviews and

appropriate revisions (McShane & Hastings, 2009). As indicated by the measure, overprotection was characterized as actions that interfere with opportunities of the child to function independently, critical control as parental rejection or disrespect of the child or childs behavior that threaten the childs sense of security or result in the child feeling badly and appropriate support as parental encouragement and support of the childs involvement in social interactions with peers (McShane & Hastings, 2009). Using this measure, parents were provided a series of two hypothetical situations and asked to rate, on a three point scale, the likelihood of thoughts, statements and actions (McShane & Hastings, 2009) for each of the overprotection, critical control and appropriately supportive subscales. Second, the components of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) will be administered as part of a screen procedure with the full measure to be completed at a later date to determine patterns of perceived and identified problems. The CBCL demonstrates good internal reliability and one week test retest reliability (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000). Third, The Caregiver-Teacher Report Form (CTRF) will be administered to evaluate childrens emotional and behavioral difficulties and demonstrates good internal reliability and eight day test retest reliability (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000). Fourth, The Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation (SCBE) will be administered to evaluate childrens social competence, affective expression, and adjustment difficulties. The SCBE demonstrates good reliability and two week test retest reliability (LeFreniere & Dumas, 1995). Further information concerning data collection procedures and descriptions of how composites are derived are presented in the following procedures section. Procedures

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTROL AND ANXIOUS ADJUSTMENT Data collection will take place over a 12 month time span beginning with the date of recruitment. Parents identified by the discussed simple random sampling method will be contacted to complete an initial telephone screening interview whereby the above mentioned CBCL measure will be provided and a measure of the childs internalizing problems prekindergarten commencement will be obtained. The initial telephone screening interviews will

take place in the spring and summer of the preceding kindergarten year. Following the telephone screening interview during spring and summer of the preceding kindergarten year, participants will be visited in their home in order to obtain observational data regarding parental behaviors during a sequence three parent child interaction tasks. The parent child interaction tasks used in this study will reflect those used in prior relevant studies. Parents will be observed during a puzzle task, doll story task and origami task. At this time parents will be provided the NFV questionnaire and provided a postage paid envelope to return the questionnaire once complete. Both the parent interaction observations and the NFV questionnaires will be completed in English. Near the commencement of the kindergarten year, the child participants will be observed during a naturalistic observation intended to capture observational data regarding anxious behavior during free play scenarios that followed separation from parents. Once child participants have completed five months of kindergarten programming teachers will be provided the SCBE and CTRF instruments and asked to report on child behavior spanning the prior three months. Electronic copies of the measures will be supplied to the teachers using secure district designated email with a request to complete and return the measures prior to the child participants eighth program month. A reminder email will be sent to teachers during the child participants seventh month of program. The SCBE and CTRF will be completed and returned in English. Parents will be provided the full version of the CBCL during lab visits that will

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commence during the child participants sixth to ninth month of programming. Where possible, lab visits will attempt to coordinate with designated parent school visits such as kindergarten demonstration of learning. Parents will be provided a light meal for attending these designated lab visits. Those participants unable to attend a designated lab visit will be contacted and provided an alternately scheduled lab appointment. Final data collection procedures will complete approximately 12 months following the date of the initial telephone interview completed at the commencement of the data collection process. Data Analysis Several methods of analysis will be used to inform the presented hypothesis of the current study. To analyze reliability of the NFV subscales data analysis with regard to internal consistency will be conducted. Given that it would be difficult to administer the NFV scales on two different occasions, the split-half reliability method will be used to determine internal consistency and the Spearman-Brown formula used to provide an estimate of the reliability of the full measure. Once descriptive statistics of the NFV have been collected and tabled we will use an analysis of variance or ANOVA to determine whether or not significant differences occur within our data sets. For example, we will evaluate the scores from two or more groups and assess the degree of significant difference that may occur at our selected probability level. Output from this process will be used to evaluate the relationship between parental (maternal/paternal) overprotection and child anxiety adjustment and parental (maternal/paternal) critical control and child anxiety adjustment. In order to evaluate differences between maternal and paternal psychological control the current study will use a split-plot ANOVA (SPANOVA). Using this analysis we will set within subjects factors as overprotection and critical control with the between subject factor as child gender. In addition, paired sample t-tests will be used to

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTROL AND ANXIOUS ADJUSTMENT evaluate the significance of presenting interactions. In order to evaluate convergent validity or the degree to which the NFV subscales are similar to the data obtained through the parent observations we will use a relevant correlation analysis of the identified data sets. Specifically,

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we will use Spearmans rho as the results of the NFV subscales are presented as rank or ordinal data (i.e. no response represented as zero, maybe response represented as one and a yes response represented as three). To evaluate the test retest reliability of the NFV scales correlation analysis will include the use of Pearsons r. Regression analysis will be used to evaluate the predictive validity of the NFV scales and child outcome scores. Lastly, following an analysis of the descriptive statistics of child outcome scores we will use regression analysis to evaluate the relationship between anxious adjustment and predicted changes in NFV scale scores one year from the commencement of the study. Expected Results Taking into consideration the research findings of McShane and Hastings (2009) and the purpose of the current study we would expect findings of the current study to predominately corroborate the findings of the previous study. Relating back to the stated hypotheses of the current study we would expect to produce results that validate the NFV scales as an effective measure for the identification of overprotection and critical components of psychological control. For instance, McShane and Hastings (2009) report indicated strong correlations for measures of internal consistency relating to overprotection, critical control and protectiveness therefore it is expected that the results of the current study would also demonstrate strong indications of internal consistency. Second, we would expect to see that maternal and paternal overprotection and critical control will predict increased anxious adjustment and internalizing problems in children. Third, we would expect to find differences in maternal and paternal psychological

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTROL AND ANXIOUS ADJUSTMENT control. Specifically, McShane and Hastings (2009) reported that mothers and fathers did not differ with regard to overprotection or critical control thus we expect that the results of the current study will reflect the same. Fourth, we would expect to receive results indicating that fathers of children demonstrating increased levels of anxious adjustment and internalizing

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difficulties correlate with increased levels of psychological control over time. Lastly, granted that we predict the results of the current study to validate the study presented by McShane and Hastings (2009), we would expect to find stronger correlations between parental psychological control and anxious adjustment. Research indicates that several significant potentially anxiety provoking factors differentiate preschool care and the kindergarten school environment. Given the kindergarten environment may produce stronger more significant instances of anxious adjustment we may see stronger more significant effects in parental psychological control. Additionally, as the sample includes families that may not have accessed out of home care we may expect to see fluctuations in results that may potentially relate to the inclusion of families that utilize stay at home care. Further, as kindergarten is a widely socially accepted starting point for beginning of an academic experience the results of the current study are predicted to reflect the inclusion of increasingly anxious families that may have resisted prior out of the home transitions such as out of the home care or daycare. Potential Impact of Research The current study is intended to further existing knowledge of psychological control and anxious adjustment in young children. Results of the current study will contribute to an existing understanding of the nature and consequences of psychological control in parents of an expanded age demographic of young children. As the research sample utilizes the kindergarten age demographic results may be generalized to a larger population of family units that include

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children that have received in home and or out of home care. Research supported and effective psychometric measures designed to assist in the evaluation of parental psychological control of young children is minimal. Further validation of the efficacy of the New Friends Vignettes as a psychometric measure will assist the professional community in identification of overprotective and or critical parental psychological control in young children. The current research findings will further validate the significance of maternal and paternal psychological control as a contributing factor influential in the development of social emotional functioning of young children. As anxiety continues to be a dominant area of difficulty with early presentation in the first natural transitions away from the home, the current study will further support the knowledge pursuant to the role of the parent in anxious adjustment of young children. Findings of the current study add to knowledge of consistency of parental psychological control across behaviours and contexts.

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTROL AND ANXIOUS ADJUSTMENT References

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