Parental Influence on Social Anxiety in Children and Adolescents: Its Assessment and Management Using Psychodrama

doi:10.4236/psych.2013.43A037

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Psychology

2013. Vol.4, No.3A, 246-253

Published Online March 2013 in SciRes (http://www.scirp.org/journal/psych) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/psych.2013.43A037

246

Parental Influence on Social Anxiety in Children and Adolescents:

Its Assessment and Management Using Psychodrama

Esther F. Akinsola, Pamela Arnold Udoka

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria

Email: [email protected], [email protected]

Received December 18th, 2012; revised January 16th, 2013; accepted February 14th, 2013

Available literature implicates hereditary disposition and environmental conditions in the development of

social anxiety in children. Based on their early experiences children can perceive and interpret normal so-

cial situations and interactions negatively and as threatening. This perceptions can generate anxieties in

them including social and performance anxieties. Based on this premise an attempt was made in this study

to assess social and performance anxieties in some children and adolescents, determine the influence of

parenting on the development of these anxieties and manage those with high levels of these anxieties us-

ing psychodrama as the therapeutic technique. 567 children and adolescents aged 7 - 16 years, (275 males

and 292 females) were assessed on social anxiety, performance anxiety, and parenting style scales. Par-

ticipants who reported high levels of anxiety and who scored higher than the mean scores on the anxieties

scales were managed using psychodrama. Results obtained indicated that permissive parenting style and

its hybrids tend to promote the development of social and performance anxieties in the participants more

than other parenting styles. In addition psychodrama as an intervention therapy was found to be effective

in reducing the levels of social and performance anxieties in the participants managed.

Keywords: Parental Influence; Social Anxiety; Psychodrama

Introduction

Parental Influence on Development

Baumrind (1971) identified parental practices, which influ-

ence the developing child, as parenting style, and this parenting

style was categorized into three types, namely authoritarian,

authoritative, and permissive parenting styles. The permissive

parenting style was later differentiated into neglectful and in-

dulgent styles (Maccoby & Martin, 1983).

According to Baumrind (1971), authoritarian parenting is re-

strictive and punitive, and places firm limits and controls on

children with little or no verbal exchange. Authoritarian par-

enting is presumed to be associated with social incompetence

and poor communication skills (Baumrind, 1991). Authoritative

parents although put some limits and controls on their chil-

dren’s actions, but they allow extensive verbal dialogue which

promotes parental responsiveness, and encourages independ-

ence, social and cognitive competence, self reliance and social

responsibility in them. Authoritative parents make use of be-

havioural and monitoring controls to guide and direct their

children’s behaviour and provide them with reasons for their

own actions. Authoritative parents encourage reciprocal com-

munication with their children and are open to modifying their

rules if and when necessary (Baumrind, 1967). In permissive

parenting few or no rules and little or no controls are exerted

over the children. Children under such parenting style are given

complete freedom to make their life decisions and behave

autonomously and independently (Baumrind, 1991). This type

of parenting style was associated with social incompetence and

lack of self control (Maccoby & Martin, 1983, Baumrind, 1971).

In Nigeria, parental practices embrace all the parenting styles

with emphasis on obedience and compliance with parental in-

structions (Akinsola, 2011). Many Nigerian parents however

accompany this demand for obedience and compliance with

parental instructions with responsiveness, love, care, sensitivity,

reciprocal dialogue, and explanations for their actions. The

combination of demand for obedience and responsiveness by

parents allows Nigerian children to perceive their parents as

authoritative some of the time and authoritarian at other times.

Research evidence has indicated that authoritative and au-

thoritarian parenting styles as well as their hybrids are signifi-

cantly practiced by Nigerian parents (Akinsola, 2010a). It is

therefore expected that children brought up under permissive

and authoritarian parenting styles and their hybrids would re-

port higher levels of social and performance anxieties than

those brought up under authoritative parenting style.

Social Anxi et y

Social anxiety involves exaggerated, persistent, irrational and

disruptive fear of a particular object, a particular event, or a

particular setting. Social anxiety becomes social anxiety disor-

der when it is very distressing or it interferes with work or

school or other activities. Social anxiety disorder involves

overwhelming anxiety and excessive self consciousness in

everyday social situations (Bruce & Saeed, 1999). People with

social anxiety have a persistent, intense and chronic fear of

being watched and judged by others and of being embarrassed

by their own actions. Social anxiety disorder as defined in

DSM-IV is characterized by a strong and persistent fear of so-

cial or performance situations in which the person concerned

might feel embarrassment or humiliation (DSM-IV American

Psychiatric association, 1994, 2000)

Available literature suggests that hereditary and environ-

E. F. AKINSOLA, P. A. UDOKA

mental factors contribute to the development of social anxiety

(Chandler,2012, Cuncic, 2012). This is because many children

usually have one or even both parents with anxiety disorders.

Besides behavioural inhibition which is the tendency to react

negatively to new situations or people or things is believed to

be inherited and can lead to social anxiety disorder (Chandler,

2012). Some children may be irritable as infants, shy and fear-

ful as toddlers, cautious, quiet and introverted at the school age,

and this trait may continue to show into adolescence and adult-

hood, and they appear more likely to develop social anxiety

disorder (Schwartz, Snidman, & Kagan, 1999). Children who

consistently behave in this way are more likely to have parents

who have anxiety disorders (Merikangas, Avenevoli, Dierker,

& Grillon, 1999). Children with social anxiety appear less in-

terested in exploring new things, more likely to be embarrassed

about what they say at school, how they look or be afraid of

looking at or doing something stupid. Social phobia typically

occurs between 11-19 years of age (Cuncic, 2012). Socially

phobic children appear less likely to receive positive reactions

from peers and anxious or inhibited children may isolate them-

selves (Spence, Donovan,& Brechman-Toussaint, 1999; Rubin,

& Mills, 1988). It has also been found that parents of children

with anxiety disorders tend to be isolated themselves, and that

shyness in adoptive parents significantly correlated with shy-

ness in adopted children (Bruch, 1989).

Environmental factors such as speech or language problems,

disfiguring physical illness, abuse, neglect, and direct social

experiences have also been linked with social anxiety. For in-

stance, previous social experiences that are traumatic or hu-

miliating have been found to be associated with the onset or

worsening of social anxiety disorders especially those related to

performance anxiety and fear of public speaking (Beidel, 1999,

Beidel & Turner, 1998). In addition parental practices are con-

sidered to be part of environmental factors that may affect the

development of anxiety in children. In this regard, it has been

suggested that children can acquire social anxiety or phobia

through the processes of observational learning and parental

psychosocial education. For example, direct experiences such

as observing or hearing about the socially negative experiences

of others or verbal warnings of social problems and dangers

may make the development of social anxiety disorder more

likely (Mineka, & Zinbarg, 1995; Bidel, & Turner, 1998). So-

cietal attitude to shyness and avoidance has also been found to

be related to social anxiety by affecting the ability to form rela-

tionships or access employment, or education and by causing

shame (Okano, 1994). It has also been found that the effects of

parenting are different depending on the culture. For instance in

one study American children were found to be more likely to

develop social anxiety disorder if their parents emphasize the

importance of others’ opinion and use shame as a disciplinary

strategy, whereas in another study in China, it was found that

shy and inhibited children were more accepted than their peers

and more likely to be considered for leadership and considered

competent (Xinyin, Rubin, &Boshu, 1995). In countries such as

Nigeria where children are to be seen and not heard and as such

are trained to be timid and fearful of adults, parental input in

the socialization of children or parental psychosocial education

may generate social and performance anxieties in them.

Social Anxiety & Intervention Strategies

Social anxiety has been found to be responsive to behav-

ioural and cognitive behavioural therapy involving the use of

exposure (gradual re-entry into feared situation), (Bruce &

Saeed, 1999). Components of cognitive behaviour therapy for

social phobia have been found to include symptom manage-

ment skills, social skill training, cognitive restructuring all of

which are aimed at changing the patients’ anxious thought

processes and exposure. Studies that have examined compo-

nents of behavioural and cognitive behavioural interventions

for social anxiety reported that cognitive behaviour therapy

involving exposure and focusing on changing phobic thinking

can benefit as many as75% of patients (Bruce & Saeed, 1999).

Treadwell, Kumar, & Wright (2005) combined the use of

cognitive behavioural therapy with psychodrama to address the

problems of college students and patients diagnosed with mood,

substance abuse, anxiety and personality disorders. They found

that the students and the clinical populations responded well to

the cognitive behavioural techniques within the context of psy-

chodrama. The techniques helped the clients to become aware

of their habitual dysfunctional thought patterns and beliefs sys-

tem that play an important role in mood regulation. The com-

bination of the techniques provided a balance between an ex-

ploration of emotionally laden situations and a more concrete,

data based, problem-solving process.

Psychodrama

Psychodrama is a therapeutic technique often used as a psy-

chotherapy that uses group role playing and dramatic self pres-

entation and spontaneous dramatization to investigate and gain

insight into clients’ lives. People in a psychodrama group act

out scenes from one person’s life to help them process the issue

they want to address in therapy

Psychodrama was developed by Moreno (1889-1974), and

includes elements of theatre which is often conducted on a

stage where props can be used. By closely re-creating real-life

situations and acting them out in the present, clients have the

opportunity to evaluate their behaviour and more deeply under-

stand a particular situation in their lives

A core tenet of psychodrama as postulated by Moreno is the

theory of “spontaneity-creativity”. Moreno believed that the

best way for an individual to respond creatively to a situation is

through spontaneity which is reflected by a readiness to impro-

vise and respond in the moment. He believed that when people

are encouraged to address a problem in a creative way by re-

acting spontaneously and on impulse they may begin to re-

discover new solutions to the problems in their lives and learn

new roles they can inhabit within it. The focus on spontaneous

action within the psychodrama was developed in Moreno’s

“Theatre of Spontaneity”. According to (Tomasulo, 2011), psy-

chodrama is based on the premise that spontaneity and anxiety

are inversely related such that the more spontaneous a person is

the lower the person’s anxiety. This in Tomasulo’s view makes

the use of psychodrama and role playing in therapy to be very

effective in overcoming anxiety.

In a session of psychodrama, the therapist becomes the di-

rector and one member of the group becomes the protagonist

and focuses on a particular situation to enact on stage. A variety

of scenes may be enacted depicting memories of specific hap-

penings in the clients’ past. These scenes approximate real-life

situations or external representation of inner mental processes

within the individuals in the group. According to Coleman

(2011), acting out scenes from a person’s life allows other

E. F. AKINSOLA, P. A. UDOKA

group members to address their past issues so that they can

process them and move forward. He pointed out that without

processing such past issues members of the role playing group

cannot move ahead. Furthermore (Coleman, 2011), affirmed

that psychodrama is effective for the treatment of disorders

such as grief, loss, drug and alcohol addiction, depression and

anxiety. Pramann (2005), also emphasized that psychodrama

can be used to facilitate developmental repair, address the

symptoms of post traumatic stress disorders and promote con-

trol, containment and stability.

Psychodrama as Intervention Strategy

Empirical research studies on the use of psychodrama as in-

tervention therapy are scanty. Practitioners of psychodrama

traditionally rely more on clinical experience than experimental

research data. This is because research data on psychodrama are

more descriptive than empirical

Some studies however have been carried out on classical

psychodrama. Kellermann (1987) reviewed some studies that

applied classical psychodrama. In one of such studies (Hall,

1977), compared the differences between an intensive weekend

psychodrama experience, and six spaced (once a week) sessions.

In the study 54 female nursing students were randomly as-

signed to the week-end group, spaced group, and control group.

The two experimental groups had 18 hours experience each.

The results indicated that the intense week-end group recorded

significantly reduced feelings of anxiety, depression, and dis-

tress but such reduction was not recorded for spaced sessions’

group, suggesting that long exposure to psychodrama may be

unimportant. In another study (Shearon, 1975) studied the ef-

fectiveness of psychodrama on fourth grade students. He found

that this approach was no more effective than reality therapy or

bibliotherapy in improving the self esteem of the participants.

Petzold, (1979) in his own study found that most of his sen-

ior participants recorded improved social relations as a result of

one year of psychodrama. In another study, Schramski, Feld-

man, Harvey, & Holiman (1984), studied the effectiveness of

psychodrama with adult correctional residents. They found that

psychodrama was more effective than a non treatment control

group in improving behaviour toward the environment. White,

Rosenblatt, Love, & little (1982) evaluated the effect of a com-

munity based project including psychodrama in the treatment of

child abusing mothers. Results showed that psychodrama was

effective in positively modifying the attitudes of the mothers

through increasing their self-acceptance, self-Control, responsi-

bility, and socialization. Carpenter & Sandberg (1985) found

that psychodrama was effective in improving ego strength and

in developing socialization skills in a small group of delinquent

adolescents. Newman and Hall (1971) also succeeded in treat-

ing socially dysfunctional college students with psychodrama.

These research evidences lend support to the effectiveness of

psychodrama in addressing the problems of adjustment, antiso-

cial, anxiety and related disorders. On the strength of these

reviews it was expected that the use of psychodrama would be

effective in reducing social and performance anxieties in the

participants studied. Hence the following hypotheses guided the

study.

Hypotheses

1) Children brought up under authoritative parenting style

and authoritative/authoritarian parenting style hybrid would be

significantly represented in the sample studied.

2) The highest proportion of children who would report high

levels of anxiety would be those brought up under the authori-

tarian/authoritative parenting style hybrid when compared to

those brought up under other parenting styles.

3) Children brought up under the authoritarian/authoritative

parenting style hybrid would report highest level of anxiety on

all the anxiety measures when compared to those reported by

children brought up under other parenting styles.

4) Psychodrama would be effective in reducing anxiety in the

children such that post treatment scores in anxiety would be

lower than pre-treatment scores.

Method

Participants

567 elementary school children aged between 7 and 16 years

randomly selected from four different schools participated in

the study. The participants were made up of 275 males and 292

females. It should be noted that the participants were not part of

a clinical sample. They were not previously diagnosed as hav-

ing anxiety disorder.

Instruments

Three assessment instruments were administered to the chil-

dren. These were:

Children social anxiety scale;

Performance anxiety scale;

Parenting style scale.

Children Social Anxiety Scale

This scale consists of 20 items and was developed by the re-

searchers taking into account the environmental context. The

scale assesses levels of anxiety in the children. The scale has

two parts. The first part evaluates the anxious events in the

participants’ lives, while the second part evaluates the fre-

quency of the anxiety provoking events and which was meas-

ured by frequency of avoidance. Examples of items in the scale

are: “Telephoning in public gives me (no anxiety, mild anxiety,

severe anxiety); I avoid it—(all the time, once a while, never);

Acting, performing or talking in front of people I don’t know

gives me—(no anxiety, mild anxiety, severe anxiety); I avoid it

—(all the time, once a while, never). The response to the first

part of the scale varied on a 3-point scale where severe anxiety

is scored 3 and no anxiety 1. For the second part, all the time is

scored 3 and never is scored 1. The split half reliability coeffi-

cients for the two parts of the anxiety scale were found to be

0.39, p < .01, and 0.59, p < .01, respectively. Norms were es-

tablished for the two parts of the scale as well.

Performan c e A n x i et y Scale

This scale was also developed by the researchers. The scale

consists of 20 items designed to assess the way children feel

when they meet, greet, talk or perform in front of their friends,

strangers, or a large group of people. Examples of items in the

scale are: describe how you feel anytime you know you are

going to meet, greet, talk or perform in front of your friends,

strangers or a large number of people. Responses to such items

248

E. F. AKINSOLA, P. A. UDOKA

include (my mouth becomes dry, I start sweating in my palms).

Responses to the scale varied on a 3-point scale of (all the time,

some of the time, none of the time). The split half reliability

coefficient for the scale was found to be 0.58, p < .01. Norms

were also established for this scale.

Parenting Style Scale

The parenting style scale was adapted from (Baumrind‘s

1971) parental care scale. It consists of 20 items designed to

assess the parenting styles under which the children were

brought up.

5 of the items measures permissive style, 6 items measures

authoritarian style and 9 items measures authoritative style.

Examples of items in the scale include: my parents respect my

privacy, “My parents give me a lot of freedom”. Responses to

the scale items varied on a 3-point rating of (agree, uncertain,

disagree). For permissive style the number of items is five. If a

child is uncertain for all the items, the score would be 10.

Therefore any score that is higher than 10 is taken as permis-

sive score, any score higher than 12 is taken as authoritarian

score and any score higher than 18 is taken as authoritative

score. The split half reliability coefficient for the scale was

found to be 0.39, p < .01; five weeks interval test retest reliabil-

ity for the three styles were found to be Permissive—0.67, au-

thoritarian—0.35, Authoritative—0.80, p < .01.

Procedure

For the assessment stage the three instruments were admin-

istered to the children after ensuring that they understood the

instructions and what they were expected to do. For the man-

agement phase, and based on the average mean scores of all the

participants, some of the children who scored higher than the

average mean scores were selected as the management sample.

This sample consisted of 50 children and their scores were rank

ordered from highest to lowest. Out of this sample 24 of them

that had the highest anxiety scores participated in the manage-

ment phase.

Management

Psychodrama was used as the therapeutic technique. This

method of therapy consists of three stages. The stages are: the

warm up stage, the action stage and the sharing stage.

At the warm up stage the director (one of the researchers) in-

teracted with the children and encouraged them to talk about

those situations that make them shy or afraid and they were

asked to choose partners and get acquainted with them.

The action stage started with selection of the antagonist (one

of the participants). The antagonist was told to act out or re-

enact some of the anxiety provoking situations that were dis-

cussed at the warm up stage. Scenes involving head-teacher-

student, mother/father/children, and eating in public places

were re-enacted. There after a protagonist was chosen amongst

those who had the fear of public speaking to act as the VC of

the University and to address the staff school children. All the

activities enacted involved all the items in the performance

inventory scale and the children Social anxiety scale. These

activities were aimed at showing the children that their per-

ceived anxiety was nothing other than a distortion of the mind.

In the sharing stage the group members were invited to ex-

press and share their feelings on what they now understand as

anxiety. After this interactive session the post test was given to

the children to find out if any significant changes had occur red

as a result of the therapeutic sessions. The psychodrama therapy

was carried out in three days.

Results

Frequency Distribution Statisti cs

Hypothesis One

Children brought up under authoritative parenting style and

authoritative/authoritarian parenting style hybrid would be sig-

nificantly represented in the sample studied.

From Table 1 above out of 565 participants 273 or 48.3% of

the children reported being brought up under the authorita-

tive/authoritarian parenting style hybrid. The chi-square (x2)

value for this proportion is 8.54 and it is significant at p < .01.

Similarly out of 565 children studied 79 of them or 14% re-

ported being brought up under authoritative parenting style.

The chi-square (x2) value for this proportion is 3.92 and it is

also significant at p < .01. In addition out of the 565 children

who participated in this study, 113 or 20% of them reported

being brought up under the permissive/authoritative/authori-

tarian parenting style hybrid. Furthermore the chi-square (x2)

value for this proportion is 4.75 and it is significant at p < .01.

By these results the first hypothesis is thus supported and an

additional hybrid the permissive/authoritarian/authoritative pa-

renting style hybrid is also significantly represented.

Hypothesis Two

The highest proportion of children who would report high

levels of anxiety would be those brought up under the authori-

tarian/authoritative parenting style hybrid when compared to

those brought up under other parenting styles.

A look at Table 2, showed that the highest number of chil-

dren that reported high levels of social anxiety, highest fre-

quency of anxiety and highest levels of performance anxiety

were those brought up under the authoritative/authoritarian

parenting style hybrid with proportions of (142/295, 48.14%),

(145/276, 52.54%), and (109/266, 40.98%). The chi-squares (x2)

for these proportions are: 8.51, 9.11, and 7.62 respectively.

Table 1.

Distribution of parenting styles and their hybrids in the sample.

Parenting style No % x2

Permissive 11 1.9

Authoritarian 13 2.3

Authoritative 79 14 3.92*

Permissive & authoritarian 19 3.4

Permissive & authoritative 37 6.5

Authoritarian & authoritative 273 48.3 8.54*

Perm/authoritarian/authoritative 113 20.0 4.75*

Undifferentiated 20 3.5

Total 565 100

Note: Chi-square table values are: (x2 = 1.9, p ≤ .05; 2.58, p ≤ .01)) 6

E. F. AKINSOLA, P. A. UDOKA

250

Table 2.

Distribution of high levels of anxiety according to parenting styles.

Parenting Style Social Anxiety No % and x2Anxiety Frequency No % and x2 Performance Anxiety No % and x2

Permissive 7 2.37 2 0.73 7 2.63

Authoritarian 6 2.03 7 2.54 4 1.50

Authoritative 40

13.56

3.41** 32 11.59

2.98** 39 14.66

3.98**

Permissive/Authoritarian 9 3.05 8 2.90 14 5.26

Permissive/Authoritative 22 7.46 13 4.71 25 9.40

3.79**

Authoritarian/Authoritative 142

48.14

8.51** 145 52.54

9.11** 109 40.98

7.62**

Perm/Authoritarian/Authoritative 61 20.68

4.82** 59 21.38

4.98** 63 23.68

5.11**

Undifferentiated 8 2.71 10 3.62 5 1.88

Total 295 100 276 100 266 100

Note: Chi-square (x2) table values are: x2 = 1.96, p ≤ .05, 2.58, p ≤ .01.

The values are significant at p < .01. The next high frequency

of children that reported high levels of social anxiety, frequency

of anxiety and high levels of performance anxiety were children

brought up under the permissive/authoritarian/authoritative par-

enting style hybrid. The proportions are: (61/295, 20.68%),

(59/276, 21.38%), and (63/266, 23.68%). The chi-square values

for these proportions are: 4.82, 4.98, and 5.11 respectively.

These values are significant at p < .01. The next high frequency

involved those children brought up under the authoritative par-

enting style. The proportions of these children that reported

high levels of anxiety are: (40/295, 13.56%), (32/276, 11.59%)

and (39/266, 14.66%). The chi-square values for the propor-

tions are: 3.41, 2.98, and 3.98 respectively. Similarly they are

significant at p < .01. The last significant frequency of children

that reported high levels of performance anxiety were those

brought up under the permissive/authoritative parenting style

hybrid. The proportion is: (25/266, 9.40%). The chi-square

value for this proportion is 2.61, and the value is significant at p

< .01. These results support the second hypothesis.

Descriptive Statistics Results

The scores in Table 3 represent the norms for the social and

performance anxiety scales. The participants that participated in

the management phase were selected from those who scored

higher than the mean scores reported above. The mean scores

and standard deviations of anxiety measures according to the

three single parenting styles are reported in Table 4.

From Table 4 above it is observed that children brought up

under permissive parenting scored highest in social anxiety

and performance anxiety. For frequency of anxiety, children

brought up under the authoritarian parenting style had the high-

est score. However these differences were not statistically sig-

nificant.

Hypothesis Three

Children brought up under the authoritarian/authoritative

parenting style hybrid would report the highest level of anxiety

on all the anxiety measures when compared to those reported

Table 3.

Means and standard deviation scores of the participants in the meas-

ures.

No Mean Standard Dev.

Social anxiety 565 37.56 6.84

Frequency of anxiety 565 40.00 7.35

Performance anxiety 565 35.02 5.91

Table 4.

Means & Std. deviation of anxiety scores according to the three main

parenting styles.

Parenting

style

Social

anxiety

Frequency

of anxiety

Performance

anxiety

MeanStd Dev.Mean Std. Dev. MeanStd. Dev.

Permissive

No = 11 38.645.99 37.00 6.51 37.55 4.50

Authoritarian

No = 13 36.385.42 42.46 9.73 33.23 6.06

Authoritative

No = 79 36.157.93 39.40 6.58 34.63 6.41

by children brought up under other parenting styles.

From Table 5 above children brought up under permis-

sive/authoritarian hybrid scored highest in performance anxiety

followed by those under permissive/authoritative hybrid, fol-

lowed by those under permissive/authoritative/authoritarian hy-

brid then authoritarian/authoritative hybrid and lastly those

under the undifferentiated hybrid in that order. Children brought

up under the permissive/authoritative hybrid scored highest in

social anxiety. This is followed by those brought up under per-

missive/authoritative/authoritarian hybrid. Children brought up

under the undifferentiated hybrid scored lowest in social anxi-

ety. For frequency of social anxiety children brought up under

permissive/authoritarian/authoritative hybrid had the highest

score, while those brought up under permissive/authoritarian

hybrid had the least score. In other to determine if these differ-

E. F. AKINSOLA, P. A. UDOKA

ences are significant the data was subjected to analysis of vari-

ance test. The results are presented in Table 6.

From Table 6 below, the difference in mean scores is sig-

nificant only for performance anxiety. As can be seen in Table

5 below those children brought up under permissive/authori-

tarian hybrid scored highest on performance anxiety, and those

brought up under undifferentiated hybrid scored lowest. These

results do not support hypothesis three. On the contrary the

results suggest that permissive parenting style and its hybrids

tend to promote anxiety more in children than other parenting

styles.

Hypothesis Four

Psychodrama will be effective in reducing anxiety in the

children such that post treatment scores in anxiety would be

lower than pre-treatment scores.

From Table 7 it is evident that psychodrama was effective in

reducing social and performance anxiety in the children. The

pre-test and post-test mean scores of the children are: (Social

anxiety: 29.08, 21.75, t = 8.12, p < .01); (Frequency of anxiety:

37.87, 30.43, t = 2.68, p < .05); and (Performance anxiety:

31.79, 27.92, t = 2.36, p < .05). These pre and post test mean

scores are significantly different. Therefore by these results

the fourth hypothesis is supported.

Discussion

Major Findings:

1) Children brought up under authoritative parenting style,

authoritarian/authoritative parenting style, permissive/authori-

tarian/authoritative parenting style and permissive/authoritative

parenting style were significantly represented in the sample

studied.

2) The highest proportion of children who reported higher

levels of anxiety (higher than the norm), was for children

brought up under authoritarian/authoritative parenting style

hybrid.

3) Children brought up under permissive/authoritarian par-

enting hybrid reported the highest level of performance anxiety.

4) Psychodrama was found to be effective in reducing anxi-

ety levels in the children.

In terms of frequency distribution, children brought up under

authoritarian/authoritative parenting style were highest in

number in the total sample and highest in number that reported

the three levels of anxiety studied. This is followed by the

Table 5.

Mean scores & Std. Deviation of anxiety scores according to parenting style hybrids.

Social Anxiety Frequency of anxiety Performance anxiety

MeanStd. Dev. Mean Std. Dev. Mean Std. Dev.

Perm/authoritarian No = 19 36.7410.85 37.58 10.61 38.26 5.48

Permissive/authoritative No = 37 38.787.11 38.97 4.95 37.24 4.61

Authoritarian/authoritative No = 273 37.776.40 40.22 6.89 34.08 5.88

Perm/authoritative/authoritarian. No = 113 38.156.05 40.81 7.74 36.72 5.31

Undifferentiated No = 20 35.457.88 39.10 11.62 32.40 6.31

Table 6.

ANOVA summary table for all the anxiety variables.

Measures Source SSQ df MSQ F

Social anxiety

Between

Within

Total

181.81

20347.27

20529.08

457

461

45.45

44.52 1.02

Frequency of social anxiety

Between

Within

Total

249.05

25088.75

25337.80

457

461

62.263

54.90 1.13

Performance anxiety

Between

Within

Total

1088.02

14632.02

15720.04

457

461

272.01

32.02

8.05*

p < .05

Table 7.

Pre & post test scores of children in the anxiety measures.

Pre-test (N = 24) Post-test (N = 24) t

Mean Std. Dev. Mean Std. Dev.

Social anxiety 29.08 3.50 21.75 2.71 8.12**

Frequency of anxiety 37.87 7.53 30.43 11.22 2.68*

Performance anxiety 31.79 6.37 27.92 4.91 2.36*

Note: **p < .01; *p < .05

E. F. AKINSOLA, P. A. UDOKA

number of those brought up under the combination of the three

parenting styles namely the permissive/authoritarian/authori-

tative parenting style hybrid. Next in number is the children

brought up by authoritative parents. The significant representa-

tion of the children brought up under the authoritarian/authori-

tative parenting style in this study agrees with earlier findings

(Akinsola, 2010, 2011) that this parenting style hybrid is sig-

nificantly and commonly practiced in Nigeria. One important

observation is the fact that in the earlier studies (Akinsola, 2010,

2011) in which young people served as the participants au-

thoritative parenting recorded the highest frequency of partici-

pants followed by the authoritarian/authoritative parenting.

However in this study, where children served as participants,

the authoritarian/authoritative parenting hybrid recorded the

highest frequency of participants. The implication here seems

to be that as Nigerian children grow up and mature, they tend to

perceive their parents more as authoritative and less as authori-

tarian.

The findings of this study as depicted in (Table 3) suggest

that permissive parenting tend to promote the highest level of

social and performance anxiety in the children when compared

to the levels of anxiety being promoted by other parenting

styles and the levels of anxiety reported by the total sample

(Table 3). Though this tendency was not statistically significant,

it was significant that children brought up under the permis-

sive/authoritarian parenting style reported the highest level of

performance anxiety. These findings reflect the contribution of

parental psychosocial education embedded in parenting styles

to the development of social anxiety in Nigerian children, and

the fact that all types of parenting style promote anxiety in

children raised under them, with authoritative parenting pro-

moting the least anxiety and permissive parenting promoting

the highest level of anxiety in the children. The influence of

parenting styles on social anxiety in children demonstrated in

this study also reflect societal attitude to shyness and cultural

dimension of parental socialisation of Nigerian children. The

traditional Nigerian society believes that children are to be seen

and not heard and as such child training method promotes ti-

midity and shyness in the children.

Psychodrama was found to be effective in reducing anxieties

in the children who went through therapy. This finding agrees

with the findings of Hall (1977), White et al. (1982), and Car-

penter, & Sandberg) (1985). Hall, (1997) found the intensive

weekend psychodrama experience effective in significantly

reducing feelings of anxiety, depression and distress in nurses,

while White et al. 1982, found psychodrama effective in modi-

fying child abusing mothers’ attitude and in improving their

self control and socialisation. Carpenter, & Sandberg, 1985, in

their own research, found psychotherapy effective in improving

ego strength and in developing social skills in delinquent ado-

lescents. The present finding further confirms the effectiveness

of psychodrama in reducing social and performance anxieties

and promoting public appearance confidence. Of note is the fact

that the children who went through psychodrama therapy were

not clinical samples. However given the success of the therapy

it can be confidently inferred that psychodrama therapy can be

effective in reducing anxieties in Nigerian clinical samples. In

addition some cognitive restructuring of the children’s feelings

about the objects or situations provoking fears or anxieties in

them was carried out. It is therefore suggested that it is needful

to combine psychodrama therapeutic approach with cognitive

restructuring to ensure effective and enduring outcome of psy-

chodrama therapy.

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