Anxiety Symptomatology and Academic Performance in Adolescents: The Role of Parental Emotional Expressivity during Conflict Interactions

Research has shown that anxiety in adolescents has a negative impact on a wide range of psychosocial variables, including academic performance. This study explored the role of parental emotional expressivity during conflict interactions with their children as a potential moderator of the relationship between anxiety symptomatology and academic performance in adolescents. The sample consisted of 54 adolescents and both of their parents, who were videotaped while discussing a conflict. The adolescents' anxious symptomatology was evaluated through a self-report questionnaire, while their academic performance was operationalized by using their grade point average. The total duration of the parents' emotional expressivity (both positive and negative affect) was obtained after being encoded. The results indicated that both the positive and negative affect of mothers served to moderate the relationship between the adolescents' anxiety symptomatology and academic performance. However, such association was only moderated when the mothers presented moderate/high levels of negative affect or low/moderate levels of positive affect. Paternal emotional expressivity, on the other hand, was found not to be associated with their children's academic performance. These results point to the importance of developing parental intervention guidelines that help to raise awareness of the impact of emotional expression when interacting with their children.