The Relation Between Parenting Stress and Children’s Social Anxiety in Chinese Family: The Roles of Maladaptive Parenting and FKBP5 Gene Variation

Background: Parenting stress is a known risk factor for children’s social anxiety, yet the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this relationship remain underexplored, particularly regarding gene–environment interactions. This quantitative, cross-sectional study, grounded in diathesis-stress and family process theories, examined whether maladaptive parenting mediates the link between parenting stress and children’s social anxiety, and whether FKBP5 gene variation moderates this mediation. Methods: A sample of 1774 fourth- to sixth-grade students (aged 10–14 years) and their parents participated. Parenting stress and maladaptive parenting were parent-reported, children’s social anxiety was self-reported, and children’s FKBP5-related cumulative genetic score was derived from four SNPs (rs4713916, rs1360780, rs3800373, rs9296158). Moderated mediation analyses were conducted. Results: Parenting stress was significantly and positively associated with children’s social anxiety. Maladaptive parenting partially mediated this relationship. The FKBP5 showed a marginally significant moderating effect, with simple slope analysis suggesting parenting stress was more strongly associated with child social anxiety among children with higher genetic risk. No moderating effect was found for the path from maladaptive parenting to social anxiety. Conclusions: Parenting stress is associated with children’s social anxiety both directly and indirectly through maladaptive parenting, with FKBP5-related cumulative genetic risk potentially moderating the direct effect. These findings offer preliminary evidence that may inform preventive interventions targeting parenting stress, although replication is needed.