Abstract
Objectives: Previous research has primarily focused on the beneficial effect of children’s prosocial behavior in alleviating social anxiety symptoms, without considering potential moderating processes. By adopting an ecological perspective, the objective of the present study was to examine whether this effect would be moderated by permissive parenting style.
Methods: One hundred and fifteen children (40% female) aged from 9 to 14 years (Mage = 12.165, SD = 1.395) were asked to attend an observational interaction task measuring prosocial behavior with their parents and complete measures of permissive parenting style and social anxiety. They rated social anxiety again in 1-year follow-up.
Results: Results of a moderated regression analysis showed that the relationship between prosocial behavior and T2 social anxiety was significantly moderated by permissive parenting style after controlling for gender, age, and T1 social anxiety. Results of simple slope analyses showed that when permissive parenting style was low, higher prosocial behavior predicted lower social anxiety prospectively, while the effect of prosocial behavior on social anxiety was eliminated when permissive parenting style was high.
Conclusion: These findings indicate that permissive parenting style may hamper the beneficial effect of prosocial behavior on social anxiety, highlighting the importance of targeting permissive parenting style in social anxiety interventions.
Methods: One hundred and fifteen children (40% female) aged from 9 to 14 years (Mage = 12.165, SD = 1.395) were asked to attend an observational interaction task measuring prosocial behavior with their parents and complete measures of permissive parenting style and social anxiety. They rated social anxiety again in 1-year follow-up.
Results: Results of a moderated regression analysis showed that the relationship between prosocial behavior and T2 social anxiety was significantly moderated by permissive parenting style after controlling for gender, age, and T1 social anxiety. Results of simple slope analyses showed that when permissive parenting style was low, higher prosocial behavior predicted lower social anxiety prospectively, while the effect of prosocial behavior on social anxiety was eliminated when permissive parenting style was high.
Conclusion: These findings indicate that permissive parenting style may hamper the beneficial effect of prosocial behavior on social anxiety, highlighting the importance of targeting permissive parenting style in social anxiety interventions.
| Original language | English |
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| Publication status | Published - 2 Dec 2020 |
| Event | 24th World Congress of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions - Virtual, Singapore Duration: 2 Dec 2020 → 4 Dec 2020 |
Conference
| Conference | 24th World Congress of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions |
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| Abbreviated title | IACAPAP 2020 |
| Country/Territory | Singapore |
| Period | 2/12/20 → 4/12/20 |