The role of retrospectively perceived parenting style and adult attachment behaviour in music performance anxiety

This study aimed to examine the extent to which music performance anxiety (MPA) relates to retrospectively perceived parenting style and adult attachment behaviour. Participants were 82 music students (M=23.5 years, SD=3.4) with the majority being vocal (30.5%), string (24.4%), or piano (19.5%) students having about twenty performance opportunities per year each. MPA was assessed using the German version of the Kenny Music Performance Anxiety Inventory (K-MPAI). Parenting style was measured by retrospective self-report using the German version of the Measure of Parenting Style (MOPS); Adult attachment behaviour by the Relationship Questionnaire (RQ) based on Bartholomew's four category model. Furthermore, general anxiety-related symptoms were assessed by the Disorder-Specific- Severity Measure (GAD). Canonical and partial canonical correlation analyses were used to measure the dependence between multi-dimensional constructs. Both parenting style and adult attachment behaviour were related to MPA as measured by a performance-related sub-scale of the K-MPAI (r=0.45, p=0.01 and r=0.37, p=0.02, respectively). Partial canonical correlation, however, showed no significant relations between MPA and parenting style or attachment in conditioned models. A strong link of MPA and generalised anxiety was found in all analyses. This study expands on more theoretical research in this area and provides first empirical insight into this complex multi-dimensional relationship.