A Study on the Relationship Between Parenting Styles, Parental Gender, and Anxiety Among College Students in Metro Manila

Abstract

This correlational study sought to investigate the differential influence of parenting style and parental gender on feelings of anxiety. A total of 110 responses from college students enrolled in colleges or universities in Metro Manila were collected through an online survey. The data garnered was statistically tested using two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), but results came out non-significant. Despite this, findings are still noteworthy. First, majority of the students scored their parents to be authoritarians. This parenting style was also linked to the highest anxiety scores despite being considered normative in Asian societies. Meanwhile, permissive parenting style was linked to the lowest anxiety scores. This relationship may be explained through Pollak’s theory of experience-dependent affective learning wherein constant exposure to harsh parenting may increase one’s tendency to experience anxiety. Furthermore, permissiveness and authoritativeness in mothers were linked to relatively lower anxiety scores of participants compared to fathers. However, this was not observed for authoritarian parents since anxiety scores were same for both mothers and fathers. Further investigation of this topic is still needed. With that, future researchers are recommended to reach the target sample size, consider other confounding variables in the analysis, and use a more appropriate sampling technique to ensure variations in anxiety and parenting styles. The findings of this study hope to contribute to a deeper understanding on the role of home environment on the development of anxiety – especially in relation to school or university policies about the mental health of students.