Live Poster Session: Zoom Link
Abstract: Past research has examined the association between parental support in childhood and feelings of anxiety in adulthood. Findings from multiple longitudinal studies have shown that parental support facilitates academic and social success, which is linked to lessened anxiety later on in life (Cutrona et. al 1994; Lee et. al, 2015). The present research pivots from parental support and examines the relationship between how satisfied children are with their relationships with their parents and anxiety diagnoses in adulthood, regardless of the level of support from their parents. Data were drawn from the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (AddHealth). The subjects in this study were surveyed at different time points, starting when they were adolescents (the sample included seventh to twelfth graders), and followed them through adulthood (to when they were in their thirties and forties), with the last set of data collected in 2016-2018. There were five waves of questions asked to these same individuals (over 20,000 adolescents), and data from wave one and wave five were included in this study (the data from 6,504 individuals followed from wave one through wave five were available, 2,897 were included). A chi-squared analysis revealed that there was a significant relationship between the level of parental satisfaction and anxiety diagnoses (X^2 = 14.432, p-value = 0.002373). Further analysis revealed that gender is not a moderating variable, but being male significantly decreases the odds of having an anxiety diagnosis across all levels of parental satisfaction (p-value = 3.08e-12). These results make it clear that how children perceive their relationship with their parents is associated with levels of anxiety later on in life, and this can lead to developing programs for parents to learn about their role in their children’s lives, how they can influence their children’s feelings and behaviors, and when these programs need to be put in place.