Parent Psychological Control and Youth Social Anxiety: Examining Attention Control and its Components as Moderators

Parent psychological control is associated with youth social anxiety; however, the association may be stronger for some youth than others. Guided by theory and empirical research, we examined youth attention control and its components, attention focusing and attention shifting, as moderators using parent and youth questionnaire data.

Participants were 208 youths (ages 9 to 14 years, M = 11.89 years; SD = 1.56; 59.9% females assigned at birth; 51.0% Hispanic/Latino) referred to anxiety disorders specialty clinics.

Parent-reported data revealed that youths’ attention focusing significantly moderated the association between parent psychological control and youth social anxiety. That is, among youth with high ability to focus and sustain their attention, high parent psychological control (i.e., intrusive and demanding guilt-inducing behavior) was associated with high youth social anxiety. Youth-reported data revealed that high parent psychological control was related to high social anxiety, however attention control, attention focusing, and attention shifting did not significantly moderate the association between parent psychological control and youth social anxiety.

Theoretical and clinical implications particularly with respect to treatment development are discussed.