Abstract

Humans like to think of history as progress, however, if progress is measured in the mental health of young people, as a nation, the United States has been going backwards quickly since the 1980’s (Gray, 2013). The evolution of parenting best practices through the 1980’s up until the last decade overlaps with a dramatic rise in anxiety rates among American children (Twenge et al., 2004). These overlapping trends—the rise of the overinvolved parent and the rise of childhood anxiety—suggest the new paradigm of parenting styles play a legitimate role in the development and continuation of anxiety.