Relationship of Parent Cultural Stress, Overprotective Parenting Practices, and Hispanic Children’s Anxiety

Anxiety is one of the most common experiences in children, and Hispanic children are at a high risk for developing anxiety symptoms and disorders. Previous research has shown that parental overprotective behaviors increase anxiety in White children, and the findings on the effects of overprotection on Hispanic children are mixed. In Hispanic populations, cultural stressors may also affect families and may be related to increased anxiety in youths; however, the research examining this variable is nonexistent. The present exploratory study examined the relationship of overprotective parenting practices, parental cultural stress, and child anxiety in clinical (n = 22) and community samples (n = 22) of Hispanic families. Overprotective parenting was conceptualized by three types of parenting behaviors, including parental control, parental supervision, and parent separation problems. The findings revealed that Hispanic parents of clinically anxious children endorsed more controlling practices than parents of non-clinically anxious youth. When examining parental correlates of anxiety symptoms in Hispanic youths, parent cultural stress, as well as two parental overprotective practices, specifically parental control and parent separation problems were independent predictors of anxiety symptoms in this population. Clinical interventions with Hispanic parents should emphasize both stress-reduction strategies and supportive parenting techniques to reduce overprotective behaviors, which result in increased anxiety in their children.