Introduction: Dental anxiety is defined as a state of fear that something terrible will happen in connection with dental treatment. This fear is usually associated with a feeling of losing control, and it leads to poor patient cooperation during the procedure. Dental anxiety is common in children who come to the dental office. In pediatric and preventive dentistry, dental anxiety is a major problem but if properly treated, it allows adult patients to have better oral care. A child's dental health is influenced by a number of factors, including behavior, family and society. Parental factors that directly affect their children's dental health include knowledge, anxiety, oral health behaviors and a host of other factors. Since children's oral habits are influenced by their family environment, an assessment of the child's oral health, carious lesions and accompanying clinical conditions is as important as an evaluation of relevant family factors. It is extremely important to recognize dental anxiety in a child in advance, determine the degree at the first visit and analyze the factors that influence the development of dental anxiety in an individual. Aim: The study investigates the correlation between socioeconomic factors, oral hygiene habits, and oral status with the development of dental anxiety in children aged 9 to 12 years. Methodology: The cross­sectional study involved 131 participants in total, who were children accompanied by their parents/guardians. Children of both sexes participated in the study. Of 131 participants, 69 (52.7 %) were male. The mean age of the children was 10.5 years (SD = 1.17 years). The parents in the sample were predominantly mothers (N = 98, 74.8 %). In line with previous studies on parental roles, parents of both sexes were included in the study. The study was conducted in the dental offices of the Osijek-­Baranja County Health Centre. The sample size was determined based on the calculation of the statistical power of the test of 80 % in the programme G*Power 3.1.9.7. at a significance level of α = 0.05. Based on the number of predictors, the minimum number of respondents was 118. There were two participant groups: the experimental and the control group. The experimental group involves 101 children accompanied by their parents, who come to a specialist pediatric and preventive dentistry practice for an examination, and the control group involves 30 children and their parents who come to the primary care dental practice. During the visit, the children completed questionnaires on oral hygiene habits and dental anxiety (CFSS­DS). The questionnaires were adapted to the age of the children aged 9 to 12 and to the parents, validated and translated into Croatian. After completing the questionnaire, each child underwent an oral examination, determining the DMF index for the primary and permanent dentition and measuring the oral hygiene index (OHI­S). The clinical examinations were carried out by selected dentists and specialists in paediatric and preventive dentistry to prevent the first encounter with a new dentist and/or a new dental team leading to increased dental anxiety in children. The parents completed a socioeconomic questionnaire, an oral hygiene habits questionnaire, a parenting style questionnaire (PSDQ), a child skills and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ), and a dental anxiety questionnaire for adults (CDAS). Results: The results show that the regression model with children's dental anxiety as a criterion is statistically significant and explains 26 % of the variance in children's dental anxiety. One statistically significant and positive predictor was identified: parents' dental anxiety, measured by the CDAS. In addition, the t­test showed that children attending a specialist dental practice did not have a statistically significant increase in dental anxiety compared to children attending a primary care dental practice. A moderate positive correlation was found between the results of the CFSS­DS and the CDAS (r = .29; p < .01). The dental health index most closely related to these anxiety measures was the dmf index, which showed a moderate positive correlation with parental (r = .27; p < .05) and child (r = .25; p < .05) dental anxiety, while the DMF index did not correlate significantly with any form of anxiety and the OHI­S correlated only with child anxiety (r = .23; p < 05). The results show that the dmf index is slightly higher in girls (r = ­.28; p < .05), while there was no correlation with gender in the case of DMF and OHI­S. Conclusion: With this study, we confirm the influence of parental dental anxiety on the development of dental anxiety in the child as well as the role of the child's psychosocial difficulties in the development of dental anxiety. Statistically insignificant factors in the development of dental anxiety in children are oral hygiene habits, socioeconomic family status, and parenting style.