title: Parental autonomy granting and child perceived control: effects on the everyday emotional experience of anxious youth.
abstract: Childhood anxiety is associated with low levels of parental autonomy granting and child perceived control, elevated child emotional reactivity and deficits in child emotion regulation. In early childhood, low levels of parental autonomy granting are thought to decrease child perceived control, which in turn leads to increases in child negative emotion. Later in development, perceived control may become a more stable, trait-like characteristic that amplifies the relationship between parental autonomy granting and child negative emotion. The purpose of this study was to test mediation and moderation models linking parental autonomy granting and child perceived control with child emotional reactivity and emotion regulation in anxious youth.
  
  
  
  Clinically anxious youth (N = 106) and their primary caregivers were assessed prior to beginning treatment. Children were administered a structured diagnostic interview and participated in a parent-child interaction task that was behaviorally coded for parental autonomy granting. Children completed an ecological momentary assessment protocol during which they reported on perceived control, emotional reactivity (anxiety and physiological arousal) and emotion regulation strategy use in response to daily negative life events.
  
  
  
  The relationship between parental autonomy granting and both child emotional reactivity and emotion regulation strategy use was moderated by child perceived control: the highest levels of self-reported physiological responding and the lowest levels of acceptance in response to negative events occurred in children low in perceived control with parents high in autonomy granting. Evidence for a mediational model was not found. In addition, child perceived control over negative life events was related to less anxious reactivity and greater use of both problem solving and cognitive restructuring as emotion regulation strategies.
  
  
  
  Both parental autonomy granting and child perceived control play important roles in the everyday emotional experience of clinically anxious children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Kristy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Benoit Allen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Silk
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Meller
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Patricia Z
authors.initials: PZ
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Cecile D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Ladouceur
authors.affiliation: Oregon Research Institute, Eugene, OR, USA.
authors.forename: Lisa B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Sheeber
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Erika E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Forbes
authors.affiliation: University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Ronald E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Dahl
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Greg J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Siegle
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Dana L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: McMakin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Neal D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Ryan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development / Q000502:physiology*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D000068356:Self-Control / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Parenting; anxiety; emotion; emotion regulation