The correlation between parenting styles and children's anxiety in the COVID-19 pandemic in Bandar Abbas in Iran.

Abstract

Background: Anxiety is considered a prevalent mental disorder during childhood. Due to the significance of child psychology in critical psychological and health conditions and the fact that parenting styles may affect child health and behavioral issues in prospective life, the present study intends to explore the association of parenting styles and anxiety level among children in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Materials and methods: The present cross-sectional study used a convenient sampling of all mothers with 5 to 12 children in Bandar Abbas in southern Iran. The target population included 346 mothers. A web-based self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. The questionnaire survey consisted of three parts, demographic information, Baumrind parenting styles, and Spence children's anxiety scale-parent. Analysis of quantitative data was done using a t-test, and association of qualitative variables was tested using the Chi-square test. Regression analysis was run on the significant values of the univariate analysis. The data were analyzed in SPSS 21.

Results: The findings revealed that the most frequent parenting style was authoritative (69.6%). The state of child anxiety in the authoritative style was kept to the minimum (24.07 ± 13.14). The highest anxiety score belonged to the permissive style (49.50 ± 37.67). Moreover, the results indicated that separation anxiety and fear of physical harm accounted for the most anxiety levels in the target research population. The four constructs of authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles, mother's education, and father's age accounted for 11.9% of the anxiety (P ≤ 001).

Conclusion: In light of the present findings, it can be concluded that psychologists and health care providers can raise parents' awareness of what each parenting style means and can help parents provide adequate care, love, and support for children and develop a sense of independence in them too.