Exploring the Association Between Parenting Styles, Dental Anxiety, and Dental Caries Experience Among Children Attending a University Dental Clinic: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Parenting style may influence children’s oral health behaviours and responses to dental care, but its joint relationship with dental anxiety and caries has rarely been examined. This study assessed these associations and whether dental anxiety mediated the association between parenting style and caries experience. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 143 children aged 6–12 years attending a university pediatric dental clinic in the United Arab Emirates were assessed using a 30-item adaptation of the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire, the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale, and the DMFT/dmft index. Mediation was tested in a single bootstrapped model containing all three parenting dimensions, age, and sex. Results: Parenting was classified as authoritative (n = 127), authoritarian (n = 4), or permissive (n = 12). Parenting style was associated with dental anxiety (p = 0.016) and caries experience (p < 0.001), and anxiety correlated with caries experience (ρ = 0.314, p < 0.001). Dental anxiety accounted for approximately 39% of the association between the authoritative dimension and caries experience (ACME = −0.260, p = 0.006), and this indirect effect remained significant in children aged 9–12 years. For the permissive dimension, only the direct effect was significant (p < 0.001). Conclusions: These exploratory findings, obtained with markedly imbalanced parenting-style groups, require confirmation in larger, more balanced, longitudinal samples.