Dr. Lebowtiz and Community,
In Breaking Free of Childhood Anxiety and OCD and Treating Childhood and Adolescent Anxiety, you talk about overprotective, demanding, and supportive parenting approaches. The two variables that distinguish these types of approaches are acceptance of the child's experience vs no (or low) acceptance and confidence in the child's abilities vs no (or low) confidence. My questions are: Is there a parenting approach that is low in acceptance and low in confidence that is seen in clinical practice? If so, what would this type be called and what are the clinical implications? I am having a hard time imagining this type of parenting approach because it seems that parents who are low in confidence tend to be high in acceptance of the child's experience and overidentify with the child's experience. It seems that low confidence is contingent on high acceptance. Does that make sense?
Thanks,
Matthew Carlson
Yes. Another option for that would be a parent who is relatively disengaged from the child or their problem, and thus not really providing either acceptance of confidence.