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C 2003)
Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, Vol. 25, No. 4, December 2003 (°
Assessment of Anxious Rearing Behaviors with a Modified
Version of “Egna Minnen Beträffande Uppfostran”
Questionnaire for Children
Peter Muris,1,2 Cor Meesters,1 and Anneke van Brakel1
Accepted March 18, 2003
This study examined the psychometric properties of a modified version of the EMBU for Children
(EMBU-C), a 40-item questionnaire measuring youths’ perceptions of three main types of parental
rearing (i.e., emotional warmth, rejection, and overprotection) as well as anxious rearing behaviors. For
this purpose, modified EMBU-C data were obtained in a large sample of children and adolescents (N =
1681). Results showed that the factor structure of the modified EMBU-C was satisfactory: a clear fourfactor solution emerged representing the hypothesized types of parental rearing behaviors. Higherorder factor analysis demonstrated the presence of two superordinate dimensions of parental rearing,
namely care and control. Furthermore, all modified EMBU-C scales appeared to be reliable in terms
of internal consistency and test–retest stability. Finally, positive relationships were found between
anxious rearing, overprotection, and rejection, on the one hand, and children’s anxiety symptoms, on
the other hand.
KEY WORDS: parental rearing behaviors; anxious rearing; anxiety symptoms; children and adolescents.
INTRODUCTION
Factor analytic studies have generally yielded two
main dimensions of parental rearing. The first dimension,
which can be defined as “care,” describes behaviors and
attitudes related to acceptance, warmth, and on the reverse side, rejection and criticism. The second dimension, which can be labeled as “control,” refers to parental
control, protection, and, on the reverse side, promotion
of autonomy. Research has supported the idea that these
two main parental rearing dimensions play a role in the
development of childhood anxiety disorders. For example, a recent series of studies have indeed shown that
care and control are indeed related to childhood anxiety (Grüner, Muris, & Merckelbach, 1999; Muris, 2002;
Muris, Meesters, Merckelbach, & Hülsenbeck, 2000;
Muris & Merckelbach, 1998). More precisely, low levels of care and high levels of control were associated
with higher levels of anxiety symptoms (for a review on
the links between care/control and childhood anxiety, see
Rapee, 1997).
Besides the main parental rearing dimensions of care
and control, an anxious attitude of parents may also play a
role in the development of high anxiety levels in children.
Direct evidence for this notion comes from a study by
Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent types
of child psychopathology, affecting between 5 and 10% of
young people (e.g., Verhulst, 2001). Research has shown
that anxiety disorders symptoms are also common among
normal children and adolescents. Noteworthy in this respect is a study by Muris, Merckelbach, Mayer, and Prins
(2000), who documented that in particular symptoms of
generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder,
social phobia, and specific phobia are present in a substantial minority of the youths. As to the development of
high levels of anxiety, and in its wake, anxiety disorders, it
is clear that various factors are involved (Vasey & Dadds,
2001). One of these factors has to do with the way in which
parents bring up their children or, briefly, parental rearing.
1 Department
of Medical, Clinical, and Experimental Psychology,
Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
2 To whom all correspondence should be addressed at Department of
Medical, Clinical, and Experimental Psychology, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands; e-mail:
p.muris@dep.unimaas.nl.
229
C 2003 Plenum Publishing Corporation
0882-2689/03/1200-0229/0 °
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Muris, Steerneman, Merckelbach, and Meesters (1996)
who examined the contribution of parental modeling to
fearfulness of children. Forty clinically referred children
aged 9–12 years and their parents completed fear questionnaires. In addition, parents rated to what extent they generally expressed fears to their children. Results showed that
fearfulness of children was significantly related to fearfulness of the mother. Most interestingly, the data showed
that modeling was involved in this relationship. A linear
association between fear scores and mothers’ rating of expressing fears to their children was found. That is to say,
children of mothers who never expressed their fears had
the lowest fear scores, children of mothers who often expressed their fears had the highest fear scores, whereas
children of mothers who sometimes expressed their fears
scored in between.
Similar results were obtained in a recent observational study by Gerull and Rapee (2002) who investigated
the effects of maternal modeling on the acquisition of fear
and avoidance behavior in 15- to 20-month-old toddlers.
The toddlers were shown a rubber snake and spider, which
were alternately paired with either negative or positive facial expressions by their mothers. Both stimuli were presented again after a 1- and a 10-min delay, while mothers
maintained a neutral expression. Results showed that children displayed higher levels of fear and avoidance of stimuli that had been previously paired with negative reactions
from their mothers.
While there seems to be consensus on the notion
that anxious rearing behaviors contribute to the development of anxiety in young people, few standardized instruments can be found that tap into this specific aspect of
parental rearing. One exception is the modified version of
the EMBU (Swedish acronym for My memories of upbringing) for children (EMBU-C; Castro, Toro, Van der
Ende, & Arrindell, 1993). This scale not only includes
items that are related to the main dimensions of parental
rearing, namely emotional warmth, rejection (care), and
overprotection (control), but also contains items that assess anxious rearing behaviors. So far, a number of studies
have employed the modified EMBU-C to assess relationships between children and adolescents’ perceptions of
parental rearing, and in particular anxious rearing, and
symptoms of anxiety (Grüner et al., 1999; Muris, 2002;
Muris, Meesters, et al., 2000; Muris & Merckelbach,
1998). These studies have indeed demonstrated that anxious rearing is positively related to anxiety symptomatology in youths. Although these first results are promising,
no study has thoroughly examined the psychometric properties of the modified EMBU-C. With this in mind, this
study was carried out. The EMBU-C was administered to
a large sample of children and adolescents (N = 1681)
Muris, Meesters, and van Brakel
in order to investigate (1) the factor structure of modified EMBU-C, (2) the internal consistency and test–retest
stability of the scale, and (3) its relationship to anxiety
symptoms.
METHOD
Participants and Procedure
Participants were 1681 children and adolescents
(828 boys and 853 girls) recruited from regular primary and secondary schools in the southern part of
Limburg, The Netherlands. The mean age of the sample was 12.95 years (SD = 1.67, range 9–17 years). The
vast majority of children were Caucasian (i.e., >90%);
other children most commonly had a Moroccan, Turkish, Surinam, Antillean, or Indonesian background. Because of school constraints, information about the socioeconomic status and family structure of the children was not
available.
Children completed the modified EMBU-C in their
classrooms with the teacher and a research assistant always being present to ensure independent and confidential responding and to provide assistance if necessary. The
total sample of children was used for examining the factor
structure of the modified EMBU-C and the internal consistency of its scales. Test–retest data of the measure and
scores on anxiety questionnaires were available only for
a limited number of participants. More specifically, test–
retest stability was examined in a subsample of 140 children (62 boys and 78 girls; mean age = 10.70, SD = 0.71,
range 9–13 years) who completed the modified EMBU-C
on two occasions, some 2 months apart. The relation to
anxiety symptoms was investigated in 1196 children and
adolescents (619 boys and 577 girls; mean age 12.60 years,
SD = 1.16, range 9–16 years) who, besides the parental
rearing measure, also completed one of the anxiety questionnaires (see later).
Assessment
Modified EMBU-C
The EMBU-C has been derived from the original
EMBU (Perris, Jacobsson, Lindström, Von Knorring, &
Perris, 1980), which is an 81-item inventory for assessing
adults’ recollections of their parents’ rearing behavior. In
an attempt to develop a scale for measuring children’s current perceptions of their parents’ rearing behavior, Castro
et al. (1993) simplified the questions and carried out factor
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analysis to reduce the questionnaire to 41 items measuring
four types of parental rearing: emotional warmth (e.g.,
“When you are unhappy, your parents console you and
cheer you up”), rejection (e.g., “If something happens at
home, you are the one who gets blamed for it”), overprotection (e.g., “When you come home, you have to tell your
parents what you have been doing”), and favoring subject
(e.g., Your parents favor you in relation to your brothers
and sisters”).
While the EMBU-C has been found to be a reliable
and valid questionnaire for assessing the main dimensions
of parental rearing (Castro et al., 1993), Grüner et al.
(1999) revised the scale in a attempt to include parental
behaviors that are specifically relevant for the study of
childhood anxiety. Most importantly, new items referring
to children’s perceptions of their parents’ anxious rearing
behaviors were added. Furthermore, effort was made to
design a brief and economic scale. For this purpose, only
the 10 best loading items on each parental rearing factor
were retained, and items referring to children’s brothers
and sisters (i.e., the favoring subject subscale and two additional items) were deleted because not all children had
brothers and sisters (see also Muris, Bosma, Meesters,
& Schouten, 1998). As a result, the modified EMBU-C
consists of 40 items that can be allocated to four types
of parental rearing: emotional warmth, rejection, overprotection, and anxious rearing (all items are displayed in
Tables II and III). For each EMBU-C item, children first
assess father’s rearing behavior and then mother’s rearing
behavior, using 4-point Likert-scales (1 = No, never, 2 =
Yes, but seldom, 3 = Yes, often, 4 = Yes, most of the time).
Forty-nine children (i.e., 2.83% of the initial sample) could
not provide information on the rearing behaviors of one
of their parents (because they had absolutely no contact
with the parent after divorce or because the parent had
deceased). These children were excluded from the data
analysis.
Anxiety symptoms were measured by means of various questionnaires in subsamples of children and adolescents, namely (a) the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale
(SCAS; Spence, 1998), which is a 38-item questionnaire
for measuring common anxiety disorders symptoms in
children, (b) the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED; Birmaher et al., 1997), which
is a 66-item questionnaire for assessing a broad range
of anxiety disorders symptoms in youths, and (c) the
Penn State Worry Questionnaire for Children (PSWQC; Chorpita, Tracey, Brown, Collica, & Barlow, 1997),
which is a 14-item scale that intends to measure the tendency of children to engage in excessive, generalized,
and uncontrollable worry. Previous studies have demonstrated that the SCAS, SCARED, and PSWQ-C are reli-
231
able and valid measures of childhood anxiety (Birmaher
et al., 1997; 1999; Chorpita et al., 1997; Essau, Muris, &
Ederer, 2002; Spence, 1998), and this appears also true
for the Dutch translations of these instruments (Muris,
Meesters, & Gobel, 2001; Muris, Merckelbach, Ollendick,
King, & Bogie, 2002).
A comparison with normative data of these anxiety measures (Muris et al., 2001; Muris, Schmidt, &
Merckelbach, 2000) indicated that the scores of children
and adolescents in this study were well within the range
of nonclinical youths: means were 24.17 (SD = 7.82) for
the SCAS, 16.01 (SD = 10.18) for the SCARED, and
15.20 (SD = 6.12) for the PSWQ-C. In order to make
anxiety scores comparable, total scores were calculated
and then standardized for each subsample by means of
Z -transformations. As there were significant gender differences on all anxiety measures (means for boys and girls
being respectively 22.30, SD = 7.84 vs. 26.01, SD = 7.40
on the SCAS, 14.01, SD = 8.98 vs. 18.21, SD = 10.97 on
the SCARED, and 13.54, SD = 5.56 vs. 16.94, SD = 6.22
on the PSWQ-C; see also Craske, 1997), scores were standardized within sex. In this way, it became possible to
combine the subsamples and to study the connection between parental rearing behaviors and anxiety symptoms
in a sizable population.
RESULTS
Reliability of the Modified EMBU-C
Before discussing the results regarding the reliability of the modified EMBU-C, it should be mentioned
that some differences were found as to the rearing behaviors of mothers and fathers. More precisely, mothers were
rated as more anxious [t(1681) = 25.76, p < .001], overprotective [t(1681) = 25.93, p < .001], and emotionally
warm [t(1681) = 13.19, p < .001] than were fathers (see
Table I).3
The internal consistency of the modified EMBU-C
was satisfactory; that is, all Cronbach’s αs were between
.66 and .81, and corrected item-scale correlations were all
in the .21 to .61 range (Table I). The test–retest stability of
the modified EMBU-C over a 2-month period was good.
All intraclass correlation coefficients were .78 or higher.
3 The
finding that mothers were rated as more anxious/overprotective
and warm seems to point out that controlling rearing behaviors are not
only negatively motivated, but may also have positive features. In other
words, some parents are overprotective and anxious in their rearing
behaviors, precisely because they care about the well-being of their
child.
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Muris, Meesters, and van Brakel
Table I. Descriptive Statistics (Means, Standard Deviations), Internal Consistency Coefficients,
Item-Scale Correlations, and 2-month Test–Retest Correlations of the Modified EMBU-C Scales
EMBU-C Mother
Anxious rearing
Overprotection
Rejection
Emotional warmth
EMBU-C Father
Anxious rearing
Overprotection
Rejection
Emotional warmth
Total Samplea
α
Item-Scale r
Test–Retest r
(95% CI)b
21.99 (4.73)
20.88 (3.82)
14.61 (3.46)
31.23 (4.21)
.79
.66
.77
.77
.34–.58
.22–.43
.30–.56
.35–.56
.83 (.77–.88)
.78 (.70–.85)
.84 (.78–.89)
.80 (.72–.86)
20.04 (4.55)
19.11 (3.69)
14.37 (3.52)
30.26 (4.80)
.78
.67
.78
.81
.26–.55
.21–.44
.31–.57
.41–.61
.79 (.71–.85)
.81 (.73–.86)
.84 (.78–.88)
.79 (.71–.85)
Note. EMBU-C = EMBU for Children.
= 1681.
b n = 140.
aN
Factor Analysis of the Modified EMBU-C
Principal components factor analysis of the 40 items
of the modified EMBU-C was carried out on mothers’ and
fathers’ ratings separately. An oblimin rotation was used
because various scales of parental rearing behaviors were
expected to correlate. Both analyses yielded support for
the hypothesized four-factor solution. In case of mothers’
ratings, eigenvalues for the first four factors were greater
than 1.00 (i.e., 6.34, 4.57, 1.68, and 1.42), accounting for
34.99% of the variance. Almost all items loaded convincingly (i.e., >0.40) on their intended factors (see Table II)
and it should be mentioned that there were few significant
secondary loadings. Analysis of fathers’ ratings revealed
highly similar results. The first four factors had eigenvalues greater than 1.00 (i.e., 6.32, 5.12, 1.69, and 1.41),
which declared 36.36% of the variance. Again, the vast
majority of items loaded substantially on their hypothesized factors (Table III) and not on other factors.4
Correlations among modified EMBU-C scales were
small to moderate, but generally showed the to-beexpected pattern; that is, anxious rearing correlated .48
(mother) and .50 (father) with overprotection, and .31
(mother) and .24 (father) with rejection. Further, rejection
correlated −.47 (mother) and −.47 (father) with emotional
warmth, and .35 (mother) and .30 (father) with overprotection (all ps < .001).
A higher-order factor analysis (principal components with oblimin rotation) carried out on the modified
EMBU-C scales of mothers and fathers jointly, yielded
4 Similar
results were obtained when performing factor analysis on the
data of boys, girls, younger (i.e., 9- to 13-year-olds), and older (i.e., 14to 17-year-olds) children.
two factors with eigenvalues greater than 1.00 (i.e., 3.10
and 2.41), together explaining 68.84% of the variance. As
can be seen in Table IV, the first factor, which can be labeled as “control,” had high loadings of anxious rearing
and overprotection and moderate loadings of rejection.
The second factor, which reflected the bipolar dimension
of “care,” had high positive loadings of emotional warmth
and high negative loadings of rejection.
Relationship with Anxiety Symptoms
Table V shows correlations between modified
EMBU-C scales and standardized anxiety scores. As age
had a small but significant effect on some of the parental
rearing practices (e.g., overprotection of mother and father
slightly declined as children were older, r s being −.09 and
−.07, ps < .05), partial correlations were computed to
control for this variable. Results indicated that there were
modest but significant positive relationships between anxious rearing, overprotection, and rejection of both parents,
on the one hand, and anxiety scores, on the other hand,
and this conclusion was true for the total sample but also
for boys and girls separately.5
To examine the unique contribution of various
parental rearing behaviors to anxiety symptoms, a series
5 When computing correlations for the most anxious children in the sam-
ple (i.e., the top quartile of standardized anxiety scores), relationships
between parental rearing and anxiety attenuated, probably as a result
of restriction-of-range. Nevertheless, some of the anxious rearing and
overprotection scales remained significantly linked to anxiety scores:
r (anxious rearing—mother and anxiety) = .15, p < .05, r (anxious
rearing—father and anxiety) = .18, p < .01, and r (overprotection—
mother and anxiety) = .13, p < .05.
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Table II. Factor Loadings of the 40 Items of the Modified EMBU-C on the Four Hypothesized Factors, as Computed for Mothers’ Ratings
Overprotection
When you come home, you have to tell your parents what you have been doing. (1)
Your parents want you to reveal your secrets to them. (3)
Your parents want to decide how you should be dressed or how you should look. (12)
Your parents tell you what you should do after school hours. (16)
Your parents know exactly what you are allowed to do and what not. (21)
Your parents allow you to decide what you want to do. (24a )
Your parents take care that you behave by the rules. (25)
Your parents watch you very carefully. (31)
Your parents think that they have to decide everything for you. (32)
Your parents keep a check on you. (38)
Emotional warmth
When you are unhappy, your parents console you and cheer you up. (2)
Your parents like you just the way you are. (5)
Your parents play with you and are interested in your hobbies. (7)
Your parents listen to you and consider your opinion. (10)
Your parents want to be with you. (17)
Your parents show that they love you. (19)
Your parents and you like each other. (27)
When you have done something stupid, you can make it up with your parents. (30)
Your parents give you compliments. (33)
Your parents help you when you have to do something difficult. (36)
Rejection
Your parents tell you that they don’t like your behavior at home. (4)
Your parents treat you unfairly. (8)
Your parents wish that you were like somebody else. (11)
You are blamed for everything that goes wrong. (14)
Your parents punish you for no reason. (15)
Your parents criticize you in front of others. (20)
You feel disappointed because your parents don’t give you what you want. (23)
Your parents are mean and grudging towards you. (28)
If something happens at home, you are the one who gets blamed for it. (34)
Your parents beat you for no reason. (39)
Anxious rearing
Your parents worry about what you are doing after school. (6)
Your parents are afraid that something might happen to you. (9)
Your parents worry about you getting into trouble. (13)
Your parents worry about you doing dangerous things. (18)
Your parents worry about you making a mistake. (22)
Your parents are afraid when you do something on your own. (26)
Your parents are anxious people and therefore you are not allowed to do as many things as
other children. (29)
Your parents warn you of all possible dangers. (35)
Your parents are worried when they don’t know what you are doing. (37)
Your parents want to keep you from all possible dangers. (40)
I
II
III
V
.48
.45
.54
.49
.44
−.47
.49
.40
.51
.56
.19
.15
−.12
−.14
.24
.35
.21
.41
−.23
.02
.11
.05
.13
.27
.03
−.15
.13
−.08
.44
.25
.07
.20
.14
.13
.21
−.06
.32
.39
.41
.38
.09
−.10
.03
−.20
.16
.03
.01
−.16
−.04
.12
.64
.37
.52
.56
.52
.63
.50
.50
.59
.56
−.25
−.47
−.09
−.34
−.12
−.39
−.46
−.33
−.27
−.23
.06
.06
.07
.10
.21
.05
−.05
−.08
.03
.07
.17
.11
.14
.19
.17
.30
.21
.08
.21
.08
−.24
−.22
−.29
−.22
−.16
−.21
−.24
−.16
−.17
−.10
.50
.63
.54
.68
.69
.42
.51
.43
.69
.51
.30
.19
.17
.18
.12
.27
.22
.10
.18
−.01
.21
.10
.17
.18
.28
.22
.25
−.07
.11
−.10
−.07
−.06
−.03
−.13
.24
.08
.21
.17
.30
.17
.36
.56
.69
.69
.72
.62
.47
.41
.25
.26
.20
.37
.24
.41
−.06
.02
−.10
.53
.58
.46
Note. N = 1681. EMBU-C = Child version of the EMBU. Hypothesized factor loadings are printed in bold.
item.
a Reversed
of regression analyses was carried out. In these analyses,
modified EMBU-C scale scores were the predictor variables, whereas standardized anxiety scores served as the
dependent variable. To control for age effects, this variable
was entered into the equations on step 1. In the regression
analysis in which mothers’ rearing behaviors predicted
anxiety, anxious rearing (β = .17; t = 5.30, p < .001),
overprotection (β = .13; t = 3.92, p < .001), and rejection (β = .09; t = 2.45, p < .05) each accounted for a
small but unique proportion of the variance. In the regression analysis predicting anxiety from fathers’ rearing
behaviors, anxious rearing (β = .21; t = 6.43, p < .001)
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Muris, Meesters, and van Brakel
Table III. Factor Loadings of the 40 Items of the Modified EMBU-C on the Four Hypothesized Factors, as Computed for Fathers’ Ratings
Overprotection
When you come home, you have to tell your parents what you have been doing. (1)
Your parents want you to reveal your secrets to them. (3)
Your parents want to decide how you should be dressed or how you should look. (12)
Your parents tell you what you should do after school hours. (16)
Your parents know exactly what you are allowed to do and what not. (21)
Your parents allow you to decide what you want to do. (24a )
Your parents take care that you behave by the rules. (25)
Your parents watch you very carefully. (31)
Your parents think that they have to decide everything for you. (32)
Your parents keep a check on you. (38)
Emotional warmth
When you are unhappy, your parents console you and cheer you up. (2)
Your parents like you just the way you are. (5)
Your parents play with you and are interested in your hobbies. (7)
Your parents listen to you and consider your opinion. (10)
Your parents want to be with you. (17)
Your parents show that they love you. (19)
Your parents and you like each other. (27)
When you have done something stupid, you can make it up with your parents. (30)
Your parents give you compliments. (33)
Your parents help you when you have to do something difficult. (36)
Rejection
Your parents tell you that they don’t like your behavior at home. (4)
Your parents treat you unfairly. (8)
Your parents wish that you were like somebody else. (11)
You are blamed for everything that goes wrong. (14)
Your parents punish you for no reason. (15)
Your parents criticize you in front of others. (20)
You feel disappointed because your parents don’t give you what you want. (23)
Your parents are mean and grudging towards you. (28)
If something happens at home, you are the one who gets blamed for it. (34)
Your parents beat you for no reason. (39)
Anxious rearing
Your parents worry about what you are doing after school. (6)
Your parents are afraid that something might happen to you. (9)
Your parents worry about you getting into trouble. (13)
Your parents worry about you doing dangerous things. (18)
Your parents worry about you making a mistake. (22)
Your parents are afraid when you do something on your own. (26)
Your parents are anxious people and therefore you are not allowed to do as many things as other
children. (29)
Your parents warn you of all possible dangers. (35)
Your parents are worried when they don’t know what you are doing. (37)
Your parents want to keep you from all possible dangers. (40)
I
II
III
V
.41
.39
.51
.39
.49
−.38
.56
.55
.50
.58
.16
.14
−.08
−.20
.18
.42
.14
.36
−.29
.03
.14
.08
.16
.25
.03
−.17
.13
−.14
.41
.19
.09
.14
.12
.15
.18
−.09
.28
.33
.33
.32
.20
−.09
.09
−.06
.30
.17
.06
−.11
.11
.23
.64
.52
.56
.63
.51
.68
.58
.56
.65
.56
−.25
−.42
−.13
−.38
−.16
−.36
−.43
−.34
−.24
−.21
.05
−.00
−.01
−.02
.18
.12
.03
−.01
.07
.14
.06
.12
.12
.12
.23
.16
.06
.17
.16
.21
−.23
−.34
−.37
−.23
−.25
−.15
−.32
−.25
−.17
−.25
.58
.64
.53
.70
.68
.50
.49
.39
.73
.48
.26
.15
.22
.14
.08
.20
.24
.09
.10
−.02
.21
.13
.16
.18
.24
.30
.29
−.02
.16
−.00
.03
−.07
−.10
−.19
.24
.02
.22
.15
.29
.11
.30
.57
.70
.72
.73
.60
.50
.32
.44
.43
.35
.32
.22
.41
−.07
−.04
−.13
.47
.50
.39
Note. N = 1681. EMBU-C = Child version of the EMBU. Hypothesized factor loadings are printed in bold.
item.
a Reversed
and rejection (β = .11; t = 3.20, p < .001) were found to
make significant contributions. Highly similar results were
obtained when analyzing the data for boys and girls separately. That is, in both genders, mothers’ anxious rearing,
overprotection, and rejection, and fathers’ anxious rearing
and rejection made significant contributions to children’s
anxiety scores.
DISCUSSION
This study examined the psychometric properties of
the modified EMBU-C, which is a questionnaire measuring children and adolescents’ perceptions of parental rearing practices, including anxious rearing. The results can be
catalogued as follows. First, factor analysis of the modified
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Anxious Rearing Behaviors
Control
Care
0.80
0.82
−0.09
0.04
0.78
0.78
−0.12
−0.05
0.41
0.41
−0.78
−0.77
0.16
0.18
0.84
0.84
Note. N = 1681. EMBU-C = Child version of the EMBU.
EMBU-C yielded support for the hypothesized structure
with four factors. That is, besides the three original scales
of overprotection, emotional warmth, and rejection, the
new scale of anxious rearing clearly emerged as a separate factor. Second, higher-order factor analysis performed
on the scales of the modified EMBU-C demonstrated the
presence of two superordinate dimensions of parental rearing, namely care and control. Third, modified EMBU-C
scales appeared to be reliable in terms of internal consistency and test–retest stability. Fourth, modified EMBU-C
scales were in a theoretically meaningful way related to
anxiety scores; that is, positive correlations were found
between anxious rearing, overprotection, and rejection,
on the one hand, and children’s anxiety symptoms, on the
other hand.
Table V. Correlations (Corrected for Age) Between Modified EMBU-C
Scales and Z-Transformed Anxiety Scores
EMBU-C Mother
Anxious rearing
Overprotection
Rejection
Emotional warmth
EMBU-C Father
Anxious rearing
Overprotection
Rejection
Emotional warmth
Total Sample
(n = 1196)
Boys
(n = 619)
Girls
(n = 577)
.26∗
.24∗
.17∗
−.02
.33∗
.25∗
.19∗
−.01
.20∗
.24∗
.16∗
−.03
.26∗
.19∗
.18∗
−.04
.30∗
.18∗
.16∗
−.02
.21∗
.19∗
.21∗
−.08
Note. EMBU-C = EMBU for Children.
< .001.
∗p
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235
Table IV. Results of Higher-Order Factor Analysis of the Modified
EMBU-C Subscales
Anxious rearing
Mother
Father
Overprotection
Mother
Father
Rejection
Mother
Father
Emotional warmth
Mother
Father
August 29, 2003
This findings regarding the factor structure of the
modified EMBU-C are well in keeping with previous factor analytic research on the original version of this instrument (Castro et al., 1993; Gerlsma, Arrindell, van der
Veen, & Emmelkamp, 1991; Muris et al., 1998; Markus,
Lindhout, Boer, Hoogendijk, & Arrindell, 2003). More
specifically, overprotection, emotional warmth, and rejection were found to be robust factors and seem to represent replicable types of parental rearing in boys and
girls from various ages. Furthermore, higher-order factor analysis of the modified EMBU-C clearly reproduced
the main parental rearing dimensions of care and control, a
result that coincides with earlier findings in several child
(e.g., Markus et al., 2003) and adult studies (Arrindell
et al., 1986; Arrindell, Emmelkamp, Brilman, & Monsma,
1983; Arrindell, Gerlsma, Vandereycken, Hageman, &
Daeseleire, 1998).
In the factor analysis, anxious rearing clearly
emerged as a separate factor of parental rearing. Thus,
although this type of parental behavior shows some overlap with overprotection (with r s of 0.48 and 0.50), it seems
to represent a somewhat different aspect of mothers’ and
fathers’ rearing practices, one that seems particularly relevant when studying anxiety in children and adolescents.
In support of the latter notion, in all regression analysis,
anxious rearing appeared the best predictor of childhood
anxiety symptoms.
With respect to the relationship between parental
rearing and anxiety, two remarks are in order. First, it
should be borne in mind that this study was correlational
in nature and hence no conclusions can be drawn about
cause–effect relationships. It may well be the case that
anxious, overprotective, and rejective rearing behaviors
promote anxiety in children and adolescents. Another possibility, however, is that high levels of anxiety symptoms in youths elicit the above mentioned rearing behaviors. Observations in clinical practice seem to suggest
that both interpretations are valid (Siqueland, Kendall, &
Steinberg, 1996). There seem to be parents who suffer from anxiety problems themselves (cf. Last, Hersen,
Kazdin, Orvaschel, & Perrin, 1991) and in continuation
of this frequently employ anxious and overprotective rearing strategies (Dadds & Roth, 2001). On the other hand,
there are also parents who use these strategies precisely
because they want to reduce distress in their anxious child
(Ollendick, Vasey, & King, 2001). Second, one can argue that parental rearing behaviors only accounted for a
rather small proportion of the variance in children’s anxiety scores (i.e., 8.90–9.20%). Yet, as mentioned in the
Introduction section, current theories assume that multiple factors are involved in the etiology and maintenance
of anxiety problems in children and adolescents (Vasey &
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236
Dadds, 2001). In combination with factors such as temperament, learning experiences, coping behaviors, and cognition, parental rearing behaviors may still play a significant
role in the development of anxiety disorders.
It should be acknowledged that this study suffers
from various limitations. First of all, the study used a sample of nonclinical children and adolescents. Future studies
should examine the psychometric properties of the modified EMBU-C in clinically referred youths. Further, it
would be interesting to investigate parental rearing behaviors in children with anxiety disorders and to make a
comparison with children suffering from other disorders
and control children. Such an analysis may yield further
information on the role of rearing behaviors as measured
with the modified EMBU-C in the development of pathological anxiety. Second, the study solely relied on children
and adolescents’ self-report. Inclusion of a parent version
of the modified EMBU-C would have provided valuable
information on the agreement of children and parents’
perception of various rearing behaviors (see e.g., Muris,
Bögels, Meesters, Van der Kamp, & Van Oosten, 1996).
Third and finally, no alternative index of parenting was
administered. For example, when the study had included
an age-downward version of the Parental Bonding Instrument (Parker, Tupling, & Brown, 1979; see De Ross &
Muris, submitted), the concurrent validity of the modified
EMBU-C could also have been investigated. Nevertheless,
the current results are encouraging and seem to demonstrate that the modified EMBU-C is a reliable tool for
assessing children’s perceptions of their parents’ behaviors, including anxious rearing. Researchers may want to
use the modified EMBU-C in their investigation of etiological models on childhood anxiety, whereas clinicians
could employ the measure to evaluate to what extent therapy has been successful in eliminating anxiety-promoting
rearing behaviors.
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