Maternal threats and college student mental health: The role of perceived anxiety control

Abstract

Objective: Although parental threatening behaviors are associated with poor mental health outcomes among college students, the underlying mechanisms of this relationship are understudied. This investigation examined the underlying role of perceived anxiety control in the association between childhood exposure to maternal threatening behaviors and depression, worry, and attention/deficit hyperactivity disorder (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) symptoms. Participants: Participants (N = 862; M_age = 18.75 years, SD = 1.04, age range = 18–24) were recruited from a large state university in the northeast. Methods: Participants completed a battery of self-report questionnaires. Results: Tests of indirect effects indicated that greater childhood exposure to maternal threats was associated with lower perceived anxiety control, which in turn was associated with more severe depression, worry, and ADHD symptoms, respectively. Conclusions: Childhood exposure to maternal threatening behaviors may contribute to college students’ low perceived anxiety control, which in turn increases the risk for these symptom clusters.

Keywords:

• College students
• emerging adults
• negative parenting
• perceived anxiety control

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of the Pennsylvania State University.

Ethics approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the IRB of the Pennsylvania State University.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Data availability statement

The data and material that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Notes

1 Seven publications from this data set are currently in print examining anxiety sensitivity and substance use,^8,50 interpersonal difficulties as a mediator between anxiety and depression,⁵¹ temperamental and cognitive risk factors for anxiety,^52,53 and interpretive and judgment biases as mediators between parental threats and anxiety.¹³

Additional information

Funding

Andres G. Viana receives funding from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and honoraria from Springer and Elsevier for editorial work.