Investigating Unique Environmental Influences of Parenting Practices on Youth Anxiety

Abstract

The associations between parenting practices and adolescent anxiety symptoms were examined in both individual and monozygotic (MZ) twin differences levels. Participants were 804 pairs of Chinese MZ adolescent twins aged 10–18 years (M = 13.57, SD = 2.67, 52% females). Twins’ anxiety symptoms were assessed by self- and parent-reports. Twins also reported their perceived parenting practices. On the individual level, parental warmth-reasoning was negatively, whereas harshness-hostility was positively, associated with both self- and parent-reported youth anxiety. On the MZ-twin differences level, the magnitudes of the associations between parenting practices and youth anxiety were decreased. MZ-twin difference in parental warmth-reasoning remained significantly associated with self- and parent-reported youth anxiety; MZ-twin difference in parental harsh-hostility was only significantly associated with self-reported youth anxiety. This study indicated that parental warmth-reasoning and harshness-hostility may be unique environmental experiences that influence youth anxiety, and illustrated the necessity of controlling for gene-environment correlations when examining the true environmental effects of parenting on child behavior.

Keywords

Adolescent anxiety gene-environment correlation monozygotic twin differences non-shared environment parenting

Introduction

Anxiety is the most common mental disorder in adolescents (Rapee, Schniering, & Hudson, 2009). One recent meta-analysis reported that the worldwide prevalence of anxiety disorder in adolescents was 6.5% (Polanczyk, Salum, Sugaya, Caye, & Rohde, 2015). About one third of adolescents are affected by subthreshold anxiety—one condition under which individuals have relevant anxiety symptoms without meeting the full criteria of anxiety disorder (Balazs et al., 2013). Both adolescents’ subthreshold anxiety and anxiety disorders are associated with significant functional impairments, suicide risk, and the onset of adult anxiety or other disorders (Balazs et al., 2013; Beesdo, Knappe, & Pine, 2009). Preventing these negative consequences requires a better understanding of the etiology of adolescent anxiety.

Quantitative genetic studies have demonstrated the contributions of genetic and environmental factors to adolescent anxiety (Chen, Yu, Li, & Zhang, 2014; Rice, 2014). Among the environmental factors, parenting has been well-demonstrated to be associated with adolescent anxiety (Drake & Ginsburg, 2012; Rapee, 2012). However, behavioral genetic research raises the concern of genetic confounding for this association (Jaffee & Price, 2012). In the present study, we used the discordant monozygotic (MZ) twin design to examine the unique environmental effects of parenting on adolescent anxiety. Identifying specific malleable environmental risk factors of adolescent anxiety is important for prevention and intervention purposes.

Parenting Dimensions and Child’s Anxiety

The critical role of parents in child development can originate from the attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969, 1973), which argues that the parent serves as a protective and secure base from which the child can develop, and having secure relationship with the caregiver is critical for the child’s healthy functioning (Chorpita & Barlow, 1998). Insecure attachment was associated with more anxiety in children and adolescents (Brumariu & Kerns, 2010). Inspired by the attachment theory, researchers started to examine specific parenting practices related to child anxiety (Parker, Tupling, & Brown, 1979).

Despite the various conceptualizations and measurements of parenting practices, warmth/acceptance and control are the two fundamental parenting dimensions that are theorized to play an important role in child’s anxiety (Chorpita & Barlow, 1998; Drake & Ginsburg, 2012; McLeod, Wood, & Weisz, 2007; Rapee, 1997). Warmth/acceptance refers to parental warmth and responsiveness, including acceptance of children’s feelings and behavior, active listening, praise, and support. The opposite of warmth/acceptance often involves rejection, hostility, and criticism. Parental control refers to behaviors toward a child with the intent of directing his or her behavior in a manner desirable to the parents (Rollins & Thomas, 1979, p. 321), and can be negative or positive in terms of implications on child development. Negative control (i.e., restrictive control) is characterized by high power assertion, harshness, intrusiveness, and over-controlling behavior, whereas positive control (i.e., inductive control) is characterized by reasoning, explaining the rules, communication, and autonomy-granting (Paulussen-Hoogeboom, Stams, Hermanns, & Peetsma, 2007).

Substantial empirical research have demonstrated the assocations between specific parenting behaviors and youth anxiety. For example, parental warmth/acceptance was associated with less anxiety (Gallagher & Cartwright-Hatton, 2008; Letcher, Sanson, Smart, & Toumbourou, 2012), whereas parental hostility and rejection were associated with more anxiety in youths (Hale, Engels, & Meeus, 2006; Verhoeven, Bögels, & van der Bruggen, 2012). Youths who received more parental overcontrol and harshness experienced more anxiety (Gallagher & Cartwright-Hatton, 2008; Shanahan, Copeland, Jane Costello, & Angold, 2008; Verhoeven et al., 2012), whereas youths receiving more parental inductive-reasoning displayed less anxiety (Letcher et al., 2012). One recent meta-analysis provided sound evidence that warmth was negatively, and overcontrol and hostility were positively, associated with youth anxiety (Yap, Pilkington, Ryan, & Jorm, 2014).

Parental warmth/acceptance may help promote children’s emotion regulation thus reduce their vulnerability to anxiety (Maccoby, 1992), whereas rejection and hostility may undermine children’s self-worth and competence, thus increasing their anxiety symptoms (Bögels & Brechman-Toussaint, 2006). Moreover, restrictive control may increase parent–child conflict and children’s feeling of uncontrollability over their life events, which in turn lead to adolescent anxiety (Affrunti & Ginsburg, 2012; Nanda, Kotchick, & Grover, 2012; Rapee, 1997).

Familial and Genetic Confounding

The demonstrated associations between parenting and youth anxiety in previous studies of “between-family, one-child-per-family” design may be, however, confounded by third variables across families (Caspi et al., 2004). For example, the family-wide factors, such as low socioeconomic status (Grant et al., 2003), inter-parental conflict (Buehler, Benson, & Gerard, 2006), and parental psychopathology (Drake & Ginsburg, 2011; Goodman, 2007) may influence both parenting and youth anxiety. Researchers have attempted to overcome this familial confounding by using the “within-family, 2-siblings-per-family” design. For example, Wei and Kendall (2014) found that the anxious children perceived their parents to be more rejecting and criticizing compared to their non-anxious siblings. However, genetic confounding cannot be ruled out in this design.

The genetic confounding arises due to the genetic influence on parenting (Klahr & Burt, 2014), that is, gene-environment correlations (rGEs) (Plomin, DeFries, & Loehlin, 1977). Two types of rGEs—passive and evocative rGEs—may underlie the link between parenting and child anxiety (Neiderhiser, Reiss, Lichtenstein, Spotts, & Ganiban, 2007; Neiderhiser et al., 2004). Passive rGE refers to the association between the child’s inherited genotype and the environment provided by his or her parents. For example, children who inherit the genetic disposition to anxiety may be more likely to receive negative parenting from their anxious parents. The link between parenting and child anxiety may also arise due to evocative rGE, whereby genetically driven child characteristics (e.g., shyness) elicit certain behavioral responses from the parents (e.g., overcontrol) that lead to their development of anxiety (Eley, Napolitano, Lau, & Gregory, 2010; Natsuaki et al., 2013). Therefore, if rGEs are not properly controlled, the observed associations between parenting and youth anxiety may be biased.

Monozygotic Difference Design

One quasi-experimental design to control for the familial and genetic confounding is the discordant MZ twin or MZ-twin difference method (Vitaro, Brendgen, & Arseneault, 2009), the rationale behind which is that MZ twins reared together share 100% of their genes and the same family-wide experiences. Therefore, the discordant MZ method, which correlates MZ-twin differences in “risk factors” with MZ-twin differences in “behavioral outcomes,” can address the familial and genetic confounding, and demonstrate the unique environmental influence of parenting on child psychopathology (McGue, Osler, & Christensen, 2010). This method has been used to identify the unique environmental factors of adolescent depression (Liang & Eley, 2005; Pike, Reiss, Hetherington, & Plomin, 1996; Shields & Beaver, 2011), showing that the effects of putative risk factors are consistently smaller than those reported in unrelated individuals.

However, the studies using the discordant MZ-twin design to test the unique effect of parenting on child’s anxiety, especially adolescents, is relatively rare. Asbury, Dunn, Pike, and Plomin (2003) showed that MZ-twin differences in two parenting behaviors—harsh discipline and negative feelings—significantly predicted twin difference in anxiety symptoms of 4-year-old children. Guimond et al. (2012) found that MZ differences in maternal and paternal overprotection at 30 months predicted differences in boys’ observed social reticence at age 6. Given the previous two studies used samples of preschool children, the knowledge of the unique influences of parenting behaviors on youth anxiety is still lacking. Given the stronger rGE in adolescence than in childhood (Plomin et al., 1977), we expected that the association between MZ-twin difference of parenting and anxiety may be weaker than those of the two prior studies.

The Present Study

In the present study, we used the MZ-twin difference method to examine the unique environmental influences of two parenting dimensions (warmth-reasoning and harshness-hostility) on adolescent anxiety. We hypothesized that the intra-pair MZ differences in parental harsh-hostility would positively predict and parental warmth-reasoning parenting would negatively predict intra-pair differences in youth anxiety. In addition, the magnitude of predictions in this genetically controlled design would be weaker than those of non-genetically controlled design (i.e., between-families analyses). To control the overlap between dimensions of parenting, we simultaneously examined the predictions of two dimensions of parenting on youth anxiety. To reduce potential bias due to shared method variance, the multiple-informant approach was used, that is, youths reported their anxiety and perceived parenting, and the parent also reported youth anxiety. Thus, we can compare results controlling and not controlling for shared method variance.

Method

Participants

The study sample of 804 pairs of MZ twins and 310 pairs of same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twins were part of an ongoing study (The Beijing Twin Study, BeTwiSt) with a population-based twin sample recruited from the Beijing municipality, China (Chen et al., 2013). Zygosity was assessed by genotyping of nine short tandem repeat (STR) markers (Chen et al., 2010). The posterior probability of being MZ for same-sex twins with the same genotype in all nine loci was estimated to be 99.99%. The proportion of same-sex DZ twins in BeTwiSt was smaller than that of Western samples, but similar to other Asian twin samples (Hur, Shin, Jeong, & Han, 2006). The age of participants ranged from 10 to 18 years (M = 13.57, SD = 2.67), and 52% were females. The numbers of participants are largely equally distributed in each age group. The vast majority of participants (92%) were of Han ethnicity. The representativeness of the twin sample was described in a prior study (Chen et al., 2013).

Procedure

All twins and their parents signed informed consent forms before participating. Arrangements were made for the twins to stay in their classrooms after school. After describing the purpose and procedures of the study, trained research assistants distributed the questionnaires to the twins and instructed them to complete the questionnaires independently. Participants were assured of the confidentiality of their responses and the voluntary nature of their participation. The questionnaires for parents were taken home by twins and mailed to our laboratory upon completion. The parent from each family who knew their children better (66% was mother) completed the parent-reported questionnaire. All procedures had been approved by the Institutional Review Board.

Measures

Anxiety

Anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Trait subscale of the Form Y of State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T, Form Y) (Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, & Jacobs, 1983). The STAI-T (20 items) measures an individual’s stable susceptibility or proneness to experience anxious mood or thoughts frequently. Example items included “I feel nervous and restless,” and “I worry too much.” On a four-point scale ranging from 1 = almost never to 4 = almost always, participants were asked to choose the statement that most closely describes how they generally feel. The Chinese version of the STAI has been demonstrated reliable and valid (Li & Lopez, 2004). The Cronbach’s alpha of the STAI-T in our study was .89.

Parent-reported youth anxiety symptoms were assessed by the STAI Parent Form (STAI-PF). The STAI-PF (20 items) consisted of the original STAI items but was reworded for parents to rate their children. For example, item “I feel nervous and restless” was rephrased to “My child feels nervous and restless.” Satisfactory psychometric properties of the STAI-PF have been supported (Southam-Gerow, Flannery-Schroeder, & Kendall, 2003). In the present study, the Cronbach’s alpha of the STAI-PF was .88.

Parenting behaviors

Adolescents reported their mother’s and father’s parenting behaviors during the past 12 months using a five-point scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always), which was adapted from the Iowa Youth and Families Project (Conger, Patterson, & Ge, 1995; Ge, Best, Conger, & Simons, 1996). We assessed two positive dimensions: inductive-reasoning (e.g., open communication, cooperative problem-solving, and decision-making; six items, alpha = .82 for mother, .85 for father) and warmth (e.g., expressed warmth, support, and affections; seven items, alpha = .86 for mother, .87 for father); and two negative dimensions: harshness (e.g., hit, spank; three items, alpha = .71 for mother, .72 for father) and hostility (e.g., yell, insult, be angry; six items, alpha = .84 for mother, .86 for father). These scales were used in American adolescents with good psychometric properties (Ge et al., 1996; Kim, Wang, Orozco-Lapray, Shen, & Murtuza, 2013). The Chinese version of questionnaires was generated by the translation and back-translation process. Principal component analysis (PCA) on the four dimensions of parenting supported the retention of two broader dimensions: the positive dimension included inductive-reasoning (factor loading = .94 for mother, .93 for father) and warmth (factor loading = .95 for mother, .94 for father), whereas the negative dimension included harshness (factor loading = .92 for mother, .93 for father) and hostility (factor loading = .86 for mother, .88 for father). The correlation between the two parenting dimensions was –.38 for mother and –.40 for father.

Statistical Analyses

Firstly, we used the twin design including MZ and DZ twins, which relies on different levels of genetic relatedness between MZ twins (100%) and DZ twins (50%), to examine whether there are genetic influences on parenting and anxiety, as well as their correlation. We compared intra-pair correlations for parenting measures and anxiety within MZ and DZ-twin pairs. If the correlation coefficients in MZ twins were greater than those in DZ twins, then genetic influences were inferred. Genetic influences on the correlations between parenting and anxiety were indicated if the cross-twin-cross-trait correlation (i.e., Twin 1’s parenting with Twin 2’s anxiety) in MZ-twin pairs was larger than that in DZ-twin pairs (Plomin, DeFries, Knopik, & Neiderheiser, 2013).

Secondly, we used the non-genetically controlled design to examine the phenotypic association between parenting and youth anxiety among individuals from different families. One child in each MZ-twin pair was randomly selected to constitute one subsample. Then, correlation and regression analyses were conducted in one such subsample. Because the correlation between each dimension of maternal and paternal parenting was moderately high (r = .62 and .51), we combined them into a composite score by averaging maternal and paternal measures, resulting in parental warmth-reasoning and parental harshness-hostility.

Finally, the MZ-twin difference strategy was used. Specifically, the relative within-pair difference scores for the parenting measures and anxiety were calculated by first randomly assigning one of the twins as Twin 1 and the other as Twin 2, and second by subtracting the score of one twin from the score of the co-twin (Vitaro et al., 2009). Correlation and regression analyses then were used to assess the association between difference scores on parenting and difference scores on anxiety. The potential sex differences were tested by examining the significance of interaction term between predictor and sex in regression models.

Results

Genetic Influences on Parenting, Anxiety and their Correlation

Table 1 shows the intra-pair correlations for parenting and anxiety within MZ- and DZ-twin pairs. For all measures of parenting behaviors and youth anxiety, the correlation coefficients in MZ twins were greater than those in DZ twins, suggesting genetic influences on youth anxiety and their perceived parenting behaviors. Moreover, the cross-twin-cross-trait correlations in MZ-twin pairs were also greater than those in DZ-twin pairs, suggesting genetic influences on the correlation between parenting and youth anxiety. In other word, the parenting–youth anxiety correlation was partially due to common genetic factors (i.e., rGE).

Table 1.

Intra-class Correlations of Parenting Variables and Youth Anxiety Within Twin Pairs.

	rMZ (N = 804)	rDZ (N = 310)
01. Mother’s warmth-reasoning (MWR)	.58^**	.43^**
02. Mother’s harshness-hostility (MHH)	.58^**	.44^**
03. Father’s warmth-reasoning (FWR)	.58^**	.37^**
04. Father’s harshness-hostility (FHH)	.54^**	.50^**
05. Parental warmth-reasoning (PWR)	.60^**	.38^**
06. Parental harshness-hostility (PHH)	.55^**	.47^**
07. Self-reported youth anxiety	.52^**	.27^**
08. Parent-reported youth anxiety	.72^**	.38^**
09. PWR—self-reported youth anxiety	−.27^**	−.21^**
10. PWR—parent-reported youth anxiety	−27^**	−.23^**
11. PHH—self-reported youth anxiety	.25^**	.14^*
12. PHH—parent-reported youth anxiety	.18^**	.14^*

Note. ^* p < .05; ^* ^* p < .01. 05 and 06 are composite scores by averaging maternal and paternal measures; 9–12 were cross-twin cross-trait correlations.

Correlations between Parenting and Youth Anxiety

The values under the diagonal in Table 2 show the correlations for individuals in different families in one subsample, which was constituted by randomly selecting one child in each MZ-twin pair. Youth-reported maternal and paternal warmth-reasoning was negatively, whereas harshness-hostility was positively, correlated with both self- and parent-reported youth anxiety. Similar patterns were found in MZ-twin difference scores, as shown in the values above the diagonal in Table 2, but the magnitudes of the correlations decreased. The cross-informant correlations of MZ-twin difference score between harshness-hostility and youth anxiety even became non-significant.

Table 2.

Correlations Among Individual Score and Monozygotic (MZ)-twin Difference of Study Variables.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1. Mother’s warmth-reasoning	—	−.28^**	.59^**	−.21^**	.89^**	−.28^**	−.27^**	−.11^**	.05
2. Mother’s harshness-hostility	−.41^**	—	−.09^*	.55^**	−.20^**	.86^**	.18^**	.01	−.00
3. Father’s warmth-reasoning	.62^**	−.24^**	—	−.23^**	.90^**	−.18^**	−.25^**	−.13^**	.01
4. Father’s harshness-hostility	−.27^**	.51^**	−.33^**	—	−.25^**	.89^**	.18^**	−.02	−.01
5. Parental warmth-reasoning	.90^**	−.36^**	.91^**	−.33^**	—	−.26^**	−.29^**	−.14^**	.04
6. Parental harshness-hostility	−.39^**	.86^**	−.33^**	.88^**	−.40^**	—	.21^**	−.01	−.01
7. Self-reported youth anxiety	−.39^**	.27^**	−.38^**	.24^**	−.43^**	.30^**	—	.19^**	.01
8. Parent-reported youth anxiety	−.28^**	.20^**	−.28^**	.18^**	−.31^**	.22^**	.38^**	—	−.05
9. Age	−.04	−.05	−.11^**	−.09^*	−.08^*	−.08^*	.14^**	.11^**	—

Note. n = 804. ^* p < .05; ^* ^* p < .01. The values above the diagonal are for MZ-twin difference score; the values under the diagonal are for individual score. 5 and 6 are composite scores by averaging maternal and paternal measures. Bold numbers present the significant correlations between parenting measures and youth anxiety.

Prediction of Parenting on Anxiety in Individuals from Different Families

To further examine the prediction of the two parenting dimensions on youth anxiety, we conducted hierarchical multiple regression analyses among individuals from different families, controlling for sex and age. The interaction terms between parenting and sex were non-significant and thus removed from the final models (see Table 3). For self-reported data, parental warmth-reasoning significantly predicted the decrease of youth anxiety, whereas parental harshness-hostility significantly predicted the increase of youth anxiety. The two parenting dimensions explained 20% of variance in youth anxiety. Similar predictions were found in parent-reported youth anxiety with smaller magnitude, explaining 10% of the variance.

Table 3.

Prediction of Parenting Practices on Youth Anxiety in Individuals from Different Families.

	Child-reported youth anxiety		Parent-reported youth anxiety
Predictors	B (95% CI)	⊿R ²	B (95% CI)	⊿R ²
Covariates		.02**		.02**
Sex	−1.57** [−2.71, −0.44]		−0.20 [−1.18, 0.78]
Age	0.42*** [0.21, 0.63]		0.26** [0.08, 0.43]
Parenting (child-reports)		.20***		.10***
Parental warmth-reasoning	−0.32*** [−0.38, −0.26]		−0.19*** [−0.24, −0.14]
Parental harshness-hostility	0.30*** [0.19, 0.41]		0.16*** [0.07, 0.25]

Note: n = 804. ^* ^* p < .01; ^* ^** p < .001. B: Unstandardized regression coefficient. CI: confidence interval. Parental warmth-reasoning and harshness-hostility was the average of mother’s and father’s scores. Sex: 0 = girls, 1 = boys.

Prediction of Parenting on Youth Anxiety within MZ Twins

In the regression analyses with the MZ-twin difference scores controlling for sex and age, the interaction terms between parenting difference and sex were also non-significant and thus removed from the final models (see Table 4). For self-reported youth anxiety, the MZ-twin difference in parental warmth-reasoning significantly negatively predicted the difference of youth anxiety, whereas difference of parental harshness-hostility significantly positively predicted difference of youth anxiety. The two MZ-twin differences of parenting dimensions explained 10% of the variance in the differences of youth anxiety. For parent-reported youth anxiety, only the MZ-twin difference in parental warmth-reasoning significantly negatively predicted the differences of youth anxiety (explained 2% of variance), and the unique prediction of the MZ-twin difference of parental harshness-hostility was non-significant. As expected, compared to the results for individuals from different families (Table 3), the prediction effects with MZ-twin pairs became smaller.

Table 4.

Prediction of Parenting Practices on Youth Anxiety Within Monozygotic (MZ) Twins.

MZ-twin difference in parenting practices	MZ-twin difference of youth anxiety(child-reports)		MZ-twin difference of youth anxiety (parent-reports)
(Child-reports)	B (95% CI)	⊿R ²	B (95% CI)	⊿R ²
Covariates		.00		.00
Sex	−0.02 [−1.10, 1.15]		0.18 [−0.54, 0.89]
Age	0.06 [−0.15, 0.27]		−0.09 [−0.23, 0.04]
Parenting		.10^***		.02^***
Parental warmth-reasoning	−0.25^*** [−0.31, −0.18]		−0.09^*** [−0.13, −0.04]
Parental harshness-hostility	0.23^*** [0.12, 0.34]		−0.05 [−0.12, 0.02]

Note: n = 804 MZ-twin pairs. ***p < .001. B: Unstandardized regression coefficient. CI: Confidence Interval. Parental warmth-reasoning and harshness-hostility was the average of mother’s and father’s scores. Sex: 0 = girls, 1 = boys.

Discussion

Although the association between parenting and youth anxiety has been well-established in previous studies with the “between-families, one-child-per-family” design, third variables such as familial and genetic factors may account for this association. In the present study, using the MZ-twin difference method, we investigated the unique environmental contribution of maternal and paternal parenting practices on the development of youth anxiety.

Genetic Influences on Parenting, Anxiety and their Correlation

We firstly examined whether youths’ anxiety and received parenting were genetically influenced by comparing intra-pair correlations between MZ- and DZ-twin pairs. We found that the intra-pair correlations of youth anxiety, either youth-or parent-reported, were greater in MZ twins than those in DZ twins, suggesting genetic influences on youth anxiety. This finding is consistent with the moderate heritability of youth anxiety (Chen et al., 2014; Rice, 2014). Furthermore, we found that the intra-pair correlations of the two parenting dimensions—warmth-reasoning and harshness-hostility—were also greater in MZ twins than in DZ twins, indicating genetic influences on parenting. This result is consistent with prior findings on genetic etiology of parenting (Klahr & Burt, 2014; Neiderhiser et al., 2004, 2007), supporting the rGEs (Jaffee & Price, 2012). Moreover, we found that the cross-twin-cross-trait correlations (i.e., Twin 1’s parenting with Twin 2’ anxiety) in MZ-twin pairs were also larger than those in DZ-twin pairs, indicating that the associations between parenting and anxiety may be partially explained by common genes. These genetic findings challenge the assumption that parenting has a true environmental effect on youth anxiety.

Association between Parenting and Youth Anxiety in Individuals across Families

Before employing the research design to control for rGE, we firstly investigated whether two specific parenting dimensions—warmth-reasoning and harshness-hostility—were associated with youth anxiety in individuals from different families. We found that both mothers’ and fathers’ negative parenting (harshness and hostility) was positively, whereas positive parenting (warmth and inductive-reasoning) was negatively, correlated with Chinese youths’ anxiety. These results are consistent with previous findings in Western youths (Yap et al., 2014), thus the parenting-youth anxiety association was generalized to Chinese youths. Furthermore, one novel contribution of this study is that we found the association between child-reported parenting and parent-reported youth anxiety. This cross-informant association provided more rigorous evidence because it reduced the shared method variance, which may inflate the previously reported associations in single-informant studies (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, & Podsakoff, 2012).

Associations between MZ-twin Differences in Parenting and Youth Anxiety

Based on the phenotypic association, we further investigated whether parenting had a true environmental effect on youth anxiety by controlling for rGE. Specifically, using the MZ-twin difference method, we demonstrated that youth-reported MZ-twin differences in parental warmth-reasoning were negatively correlated with MZ-twin differences in both self- and parent-reported youth anxiety. In addition, within MZ-twin pairs, the twin reporting more parental harshness and hostility had more self-reported anxiety. However, the association between MZ difference in self-reported parental harshness and parent-reported youth anxiety was non-significant. There are two possible explanations: firstly, the “true” environmental effect of parental harshness and hostility on youth anxiety may be really small, especially under the context of cross-rater association; secondly, the discrepancy between self- and parent-reported youth anxiety may due to the well-documented low level of parent–child agreement in assessing youth anxiety (Comer & Kendall, 2004; De Los Reyes, 2011). Because anxiety is partially an internal phenomenon, some unobservable symptoms (such as thoughts, cognition) may manifest beyond parents’ awareness. Further, observable symptoms of anxiety may occur only in situations outside the home (i.e., schools). For the child, social desirability and anxious state may compromise the child’s report.

The extent to which within-pair differences of parenting account for differences in anxiety is modest for within-rater correlation (10%), and small for cross-rater correlation (2%), which are smaller than those in non-genetically controlled research. This finding is largely consistent with previous genetically informative research (Asbury et al., 2003; Caspi et al., 2004; Guimond et al., 2012; Liang & Eley, 2005; Pike et al., 1996). Modest effect sizes are expected because the MZ-twin difference method controlled for the confounding of genetic influences and shared environmental experiences, which, on the other hand, provided a rigorous test of true environmentally mediated effect of parenting on youth anxiety (Vitaro et al., 2009).

Strengths, Limitations, and Conclusion

The present study has several strengths. Firstly, we used the MZ-twin difference method to reduce the risk of inflating the associations between parenting and youth anxiety as a result of rGEs. Secondly, both within-informant and cross-informant associations were examined to decrease potential bias due to shared source variance. Thirdly, the sample size was large, thus endowing enough statistical power.

However, the present study also has some limitations. The main limitation is that we were unable to establish the direction of the effects between differential parenting and anxiety difference between MZ twins due to the cross-sectional design. Thus, we were unable to distinguish the “parental socialization process” and “child-evoked process”, both of which have been suggested in previous studies (Rapee, 2009; Schwartz et al., 2012). Indeed, increasingly more empirical evidence supports the “bidirectional influence” (Pardini, 2008) or the “dynamic transaction model” (Natsuaki et al., 2013; Sameroff and Mackenzie, 2003) of parenting and child behavior. Future longitudinal and genetically informative study is needed to elucidate the dynamic transactional interplay between parenting and child anxiety.

Secondly, in the present study, we examined the unique environmental contributions of two parenting dimensions (warmth-reasoning and harshness-hostility) on youth anxiety. The modest (within-rater) and small (cross-rater) effect sizes obtained indicated that additional unmeasured unique or non-shared environmental factors, including other parenting dimensions such as psychological control, and experiences with peers, may account for the residual variance. These other environmental factors should be identified and further examined in future studies.

In summary, the present study indicated that parental warmth-reasoning and harshness-hostility are child-unique environmental experiences that influence youth anxiety. The study illustrates the necessity of controlling for rGEs in examining the environmental effect of parenting on child behavior, which can be accomplished by employing genetically informative designs, such as discordant MZ twins. The findings of this study have important implications for developing prevention programs; for example, targeting specific parental parenting behaviors (i.e., warmth-reasoning) may be useful for reducing the development of youth anxiety.

Footnotes

Acknowlegments

The authors would like to thank the participating families and the staff of BeTwiSt for their help for collecting the data.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31300841), and the BeTwiSt of Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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