A key finding of the current study was that higher paternal challenging behaviour was associated with lower report of child anxiety symptoms. This is consistent with the theoretical model proposed by Bögels and Phares (2008), as well as Majdandžić and colleagues' recent empirical study (Majdandžić et al., 2014). However, the logistic regression analysis demonstrated that fathers' challenging parenting behaviour did not predict child anxiety at the diagnostic level (Table 5). Although this result may appear inconsistent with the hypothesis and the theoretical model proposed by Bögels and Phares (2008), perhaps fathers' challenging parenting behaviour is more influential at the symptomatic level of child anxiety and is not a strong enough characteristic alone to discriminate between children with an anxiety diagnosis and those without. Further, as this is the first study to use a diagnostic tool for the assessment of child anxiety, as opposed to observational and parent report (see Majdandžić et al. (2014)), the relationship between this parenting behaviour and child anxiety diagnosis needs to be replicated in future studies, and across measurement methods. Additionally, for the purposes of this study, challenging parenting behaviour was measured by the total score on the CPBQ (Majdandžić et al., 2010) and thus as a broad construct. It may be that sub-domains of this measure, for example rough-and-tumble play or risk-taking, may be a better indication of fathers' challenging behaviour, and more specifically affect child anxiety (Bögels and Phares, 2008).