(PS9-C61) Are Parenting Behaviors Associated with Problematic Media Use in Youth with Social Anxiety Disorder?

In the United States children and adolescents (i.e., youth) average between 4 to 8 hours a day of media use, defined by screen consumption outside of that required for school or homework. Research investigating the impact of media use (e.g., screen media including social media and video games) on youth mental health reveals associations with anxiety symptoms. Especially for youth with social anxiety, who struggle with face-to-face social situations and interactions, media can function as an outlet to connect with others, and a strategy to avoid such situations. Studies have identified several factors (e.g., loneliness, social isolation) that moderate the link between anxiety symptoms and problematic media use, that is, use associated with impairment and distress. None have examined the role of parenting. This is a glaring research gap given that parents play a critical role in their children’s development and socialization, both typical and atypical (and anxiety-related). Parents also often play a role in providing access to and setting limits for their child’s media use.

In this study, we therefore consider parenting behavior as a moderator of associations between anxiety and problematic media use (PMUM) in a clinical sample of socially anxious youth. We examine several parenting behaviors relevant to youth anxiety symptoms: accommodation, psychological control, firm control, and acceptance. We predicted that anxiety would be most strongly related to PMUM at high levels of accommodation and psychological control, and low levels of acceptance and firm control.

Participants were youth (N = 116, 57.4% female, M_age = 11.81 years, SD = 1.57; 48% Hispanic/Latino) and their mothers who presented at two anxiety clinics in the northeastern (n = 64) and southeastern (n = 52) United States for a two-site randomized trial for social anxiety disorder. Youth and their mothers completed diagnostic interviews and self-report measures assessing anxiety diagnoses and symptoms, parenting behaviors, and PMUM.

Regression analyses revealed that accommodation and acceptance each significantly moderated the association between anxiety symptoms and problematic media use (youth-report). Probing these interactions revealed that the association between anxiety and PMUM was strongest at low levels of parent accommodation (1 SD below the mean; β = .57, p < .001), significant at mean levels (β = .38, p < .001) and nonsignificant at high levels (1 SD above the mean; β = 0.19, p < .15). The association between anxiety and PMUM was also strongest at low levels of parent acceptance (β = 0.49, p < .001), significant at mean levels (β = .35, p < .001) and nonsignificant at high levels (β = .21, p = .11). Main effects on PMUM were found for ethnicity, accommodation, psychological control, and firm control (youth- and/or parent-report). These results are the first to demonstrate the role of parenting behaviors in anxious youth’s problematic media use and further suggest that parents and youth have differing perspectives on the impact of these behaviors. These results have potential to inform how parents should approach, set limits and monitor media use with socially anxious youth.