Parental Distress Tolerance and Adolescent Anxiety: The Mediating Effect of Adolescent Distress Tolerance

Isabella M. Camerlin,* Amy Gentzler
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506

Presentation Category: Social & Behavioral Sciences (Poster Presentation)

Student’s Major: Psychology

Adolescence is a vulnerable time in which many teens find themselves developing symptoms of anxiety. Research shows that parents may play a part in adolescents’ development of anxiety. One parenting characteristic that may contribute to adolescent anxiety is parents’ distress tolerance (i.e., the ability to withstand physical or psychological distress). The current study investigates the relationship between parent distress tolerance and the development of anxiety in adolescents and whether adolescents’ distress tolerance explains this relationship. The study includes 299 adolescents (aged 14-17), 286 mothers, and 94 fathers who completed questionnaires measuring distress tolerance and anxiety symptoms. The results indicate that, contrary to expectations, there is not an association between parent distress tolerance and adolescent anxiety, but as expected, parental distress tolerance is indirectly linked with adolescent anxiety through adolescent distress tolerance (i.e. parents who are less able to tolerate distress have adolescents less able to tolerate distress and higher levels of anxiety). Implications for this study include applications in clinical settings for anxiety treatment and improved understanding of the development of anxiety in adolescence.

Funding:

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: a West Virginia SURE program