Associations of Perceived Parental Psychological Control with Depression, Anxiety in Children and Adolescents: A Meta-Analysis

The present meta-analysis comprehensively investigated the relationships between specific psychological control in parenting and depression and anxiety related to internalized problems in children through 95 studies. Based on the finding that parents’ psychological control as perceived by children is more related to children’s psychological adjustment than parents’ actual psychological control in the case of children and adolescents, the present study investigated only children’s perception of parental psychological control for children and adolescents aged 10 to 20 years. The results showed a moderate degree of relationship between perceived parental psychological control and depression and anxiety in children. Moderating effects of sampling, culture (individualism vs collectivism), parent gender, child gender, child age, and publication status were identified. Implications for future research and practice are discussed