The Association Between Parental Psychological Control and Social Anxiety Among Children and Adolescents: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis

Numerous studies have examined the relationship between parental psychological control and social anxiety among children and adolescents; however, findings are inconsistent, and existing hypotheses are conflicting. Therefore, the present study employed a three-level meta-analysis to synthesize the association between parental psychological control and social anxiety in children and adolescents. After systematic literature searching and screening, 36 studies were included, yielding 192 effect sizes and a total sample of 29,815 participants. The results showed a positive correlation between parental psychological control and social anxiety in children and adolescents. Moderator analyses indicated that parental gender, culture, type of social anxiety, type of parental psychological control, and publication year significantly moderated this association. Specifically, maternal psychological control was more strongly associated with social anxiety than paternal psychological control. Parental psychological control was more strongly associated with fear of negative evaluation and social avoidance and distress in general situations than with social avoidance and distress in unfamiliar situations. In addition, authority assertion and love withdrawal were more strongly associated with social anxiety than guilt induction. The association between parental psychological control and social anxiety also appeared to become stronger over time. Moreover, parental psychological control was more strongly associated with social anxiety in Eastern cultures than in Western cultures. However, the culture moderator should be interpreted with caution because of the imbalance in the number of effect sizes across cultural contexts. These findings suggest that parental psychological control is an important correlate of social anxiety in children and adolescents and highlight the need for further longitudinal and cross-cultural research.