Roles of parenting styles and emotion regulation in test anxiety among secondary school students

Abstract

This study investigated the roles of parenting styles and emotion regulation in test anxiety among secondary school students. Participants were 202 students of a secondary school in Nsukka urban area of Enugu state. Their age ranged from 12-20 years with the mean age of 15.79 years. Parenting styles was based on the three typologies of authoritarian, permissive and authoritative parenting styles. Three measures, namely, Parenting Styles Inventory – II (PSI-II), Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) were used for data collection. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to analyze the data. Results showed that authoritative parenting style negatively predicted test anxiety, but permissive parenting style and authoritarian parenting style did not significantly predict test anxiety. Cognitive reappraisal negatively predicted test anxiety but expressive suppression did not significantly predict test anxiety. Findings of this study highlight the importance of positive parenting practices in child upbringing and the need to facilitate cognitive reappraisal as an adaptive emotion regulation strategy in reducing test anxiety among students.