Anxious Child: The Association between Helicopter Parenting and Anxiety among Primary School Students in Kedah, Malaysia

Charles Ganaprakasam, Syeda Humayra, Kalaivani Ganasegaran, Hanif Asyraf Hashim, Selvamalar Armathlingam

Abstract


Anxiety disorders are prevalent among children, and thus require useful screening tools for assessment. A parenting practice is one of the vital indicators of children’s psychological well-being. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence investigating the underlying mechanism among children. Therefore, the current study investigates the SCARED instrument's reliability and factor structure and determines its association with helicopter parenting among primary school students. The online cross-sectional survey consisted of 181 respondents selected through the convenience sampling method.  The set of questionnaires was distributed through WhatsApp messenger with the assistance of school counsellors. Findings indicated that 109 (60.2%) indicated the presence of Anxiety Disorder. The factorial analysis demonstrated that the five-factor structure model of the SCARED also had a good model fit in this population with a total of 41.8% of variances. A significant association was found between helicopter parenting and social anxiety disorder (SAD), significant school avoidance (SH), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder (PN), and separation anxiety (SA). The study finding implies that SCARED is reliable in measuring anxiety symptoms among children and highlights the critical role of parenting in nurturing socially functional individuals. 

Keywords: SCARED, reliability, factorial structure, anxiety, helicopter parenting, Malaysia


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