Elsevier

Behavior Therapy

Volume 47, Issue 5, September 2016, Pages 633-642
Behavior Therapy

Perceived Control, Family Environment, and the Etiology of Child Anxiety—Revisited☆

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2016.01.007Get rights and content

Highlights

  • •

    Anxiety in children

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    Perceived control

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    Family environment

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    Overcontrolled parenting

Abstract

In 1998, Chorpita, Brown, and Barlow published a now seminal study in Behavior Therapy examining the development of anxiety in children and adolescents using Barlow’s 1988 model of the development of anxiety in adults. Mindful of developmental considerations, parental control and children’s perceptions of control were considered key factors in this revised model. Since that study, mixed support has accumulated for the role of control, both parental control and children’s perceptions of that control, in the development of childhood anxiety. As a result, the measurement of these constructs has been critically examined and refined in recent years and encouraging findings have been obtained. Unfortunately, however, the Chorpita and colleagues study as well as the studies that have followed have used cross-sectional designs and the directionality of effects has not been clearly established. Longitudinal studies are required. Here, we present a qualitative review of these developments and provide directions for future research.

Section snippets

A Primer of Child Anxiety

In the time since Chorpita et al. (1998) conducted their seminal study, research on child anxiety has increased exponentially. Emerging from such work, but also highlighting the importance of continued efforts in this area, are prevalence rates which consistently rank anxiety disorders among the most commonly diagnosed conditions of childhood (see Grills-Taquechel & Ollendick, 2012, for a review). Since the most recent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) was published (

On Children’s Perceived Control

Barlow, 1988, Barlow, 2002 etiological model also placed considerable emphasis on perceived lack of control over external and internal threats in the person’s environment. In the original test of this notion, Rapee et al. (1996) reported that low perceptions of control over external and internal threats were indeed associated with heightened levels of anxiety in adults; moreover, they showed that adults with anxiety disorders reported lower perceptions of control over these threats than did

Moving Forward

As we have noted throughout this brief commentary on the Chorpita et al. study, two primary shortcomings are evident in the studies conducted to date and are summarized in Table 1. First, limitations associated with how parental control, perceived control, and anxiety have been assessed are evident. Our review suggests that behavioral control and psychological control, as well as perceived control about anxiety-related situations and more general perceived control (i.e., locus of control)

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      Parental control can be conceptualized as either behavioral or psychological in nature, with the former supporting children's competence and the latter more commonly adduced as contributing to the development of anxiety in youths. Inadequate behavioral control involves lax control, unpredictability and unclear and inconsistent rules and has traditionally been associated with externalizing disorders (Ollendick & Grills, 2016; Skinner et al., 2005). Psychological control refers to restrictive, excessively regulating and over-controlling behavior and lack of autonomy granting (Murray et al., 2009; Wei & Kendall, 2014).

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    ☆

    NIMH Grant R01 MH07477 provided funds to support this review. We are grateful for NIMH’s support.

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