The present study sought to examine the underlying mechanisms through which overprotective parenting relates to social anxiety symptoms in adolescents. Specifically, we tested whether the adolescent’s emotion regulation processes of dysregulation, suppression, and integration, played an intervening role in the association between perceived maternal and paternal overprotection and social anxiety symptoms in adolescents. A sample of 278 Swiss adolescents filled out questionnaires assessing perceived overprotective parenting, social anxiety symptoms and emotion regulation . Results indicated that perceived overprotective parenting was significantly associated with adolescents’ social anxiety symptoms. Furthermore, structural equation modeling analyses indicated that emotional dysregulation intervenes in the association between both maternal and paternal overprotection and social anxiety. In addition, emotional suppression also played an intervening role in the relation between maternal overprotection and social anxiety. These findings highlight emotion regulation as a potential mechanism underlying the association between parental overprotection and social anxiety, suggesting that adolescents’ maladaptive emotion regulation processes as well as overprotecting parenting could be targeted when treating social anxiety symptoms.