The interaction between parental demandingness and executive functioning in predicting anxiety among Hong Kong students

Abstract

Anxiety has become one of the major mental health concerns among the school-aged population in Hong Kong. Both personal and environmental factors are suggested to contribute to the development of anxiety, including executive functioning (EF) and parenting, but little is known about the development of anxiety in the Eastern culture. The present study therefore aimed to investigate how EF and parental demandingness would contribute to the development of anxiety among Hong Kong students. Ninety students (Mage = 12.16 years, SD = 1.32 years) who were ethnically Chinese and free from mental health disorders first completed a series of EF tasks and a measure of anxiety. Parental demandingness was rated based on an observation of parent-child interactions. At one-year follow-up, the children completed the anxiety measure again. Results showed that EF only predicted anxiety level when parental demandingness was high. The study findings could have potential implications for providing anxiety intervention to the school-aged population in Hong Kong.