sj-pdf-2-ccp-10.1177_13591045221088708 – Supplemental Material for ‘It opened my eyes’: Parents’ experiences of their child receiving an anxiety disorder diagnosis

Supplemental Material, sj-pdf-2-ccp-10.1177_13591045221088708 for ‘It opened my eyes’: Parents’ experiences of their child receiving an anxiety disorder diagnosis by Emily Davey, Cathy Creswell, Ray Percy and Tessa Reardon in Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry</p

sj-pdf-3-ccp-10.1177_13591045221088708 – Supplemental Material for ‘It opened my eyes’: Parents’ experiences of their child receiving an anxiety disorder diagnosis

Supplemental Material, sj-pdf-3-ccp-10.1177_13591045221088708 for ‘It opened my eyes’: Parents’ experiences of their child receiving an anxiety disorder diagnosis by Emily Davey, Cathy Creswell, Ray Percy and Tessa Reardon in Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry</p

sj-pdf-1-ccp-10.1177_13591045221088708 – Supplemental Material for ‘It opened my eyes’: Parents’ experiences of their child receiving an anxiety disorder diagnosis

Supplemental Material, sj-pdf-1-ccp-10.1177_13591045221088708 for ‘It opened my eyes’: Parents’ experiences of their child receiving an anxiety disorder diagnosis by Emily Davey, Cathy Creswell, Ray Percy and Tessa Reardon in Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry</p

Adolescents’ perceived barriers and facilitators to seeking and accessing professional help for anxiety and depressive disorders: a qualitative interview study

Anxiety and depressive disorders are the most common mental health disorders in adolescents, yet only a minority of young people with these disorders access professional help. This study aims to address this treatment gap by improving our understanding of barriers and facilitators to seeking/accessing professional help as perceived by adolescents with anxiety/depressive disorders identified in the community. Twenty-two adolescents, aged 11–17 years, who met diagnostic criteria for a current anxiety and/or depressive disorder were identified through school-based screening. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted one-to-one with each adolescent and adolescents’ parents were interviewed separately for the purpose of data triangulation. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. We identified four themes capturing adolescent perceived barriers and facilitators to seeking/accessing professional help for anxiety and depressive disorders: (1) making sense of difficulties, (2) problem disclosure, (3) ambivalence to seeking help, and (4) the instrumental role of others. Barriers/facilitators identified within each theme reflect important developmental characteristics of adolescence, such as a growing need for autonomy and concerns around negative social evaluation. At the same time, the results highlight adolescents’ dependency on other people, mainly their parents and school staff, when it comes to successfully accessing professional help for their mental health difficulties. This study identifies a number of barriers/facilitators that influence help-seeking behaviour of adolescents with anxiety and/or depressive disorders. These factors need to be addressed when targeting treatment utilisation rates in this particular group of young people

Using the 11-item version of the RCADS to identify anxiety and depressive disorders in adolescents

The purpose of this study was to identify items from the Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale – RCADS-C/P that provided a brief, reliable and valid screen for anxiety and/or depressive disorders in adolescents. In addition, we examined whether adding items assessing suicidal ideation (Moods and Feelings Questionnaire – MFQ- C/P) and symptom impact and duration (items adapted from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire – SDQ) improved the identification of adolescents with anxiety and/or depressive disorders. We compared two samples of adolescents and their parents – a community sample, recruited through secondary schools in England (n?=?214) and a clinic-referred sample, who met diagnostic criteria for anxiety and/or depressive disorder and were recruited through a university-based research clinic (n?=?246). Participants completed the RCADS-C/P with additional symptom impact and duration items, and the MFQ-C/P. Using ROC curve analyses, we identified a set of 11 RCADS-C/P items (6 addressing anxiety and 5 depression symptoms) for adolescent- and parent-report. This set of 11 symptom items achieved sensitivity/specificity values?>?.75, which were comparable to corresponding values for the RCADS-47-C/P. Combining adolescent and parent-report improved the identification of anxiety/depression in adolescents compared to using adolescent-report alone. Finally, adding two symptom impact items further improved the sensitivity/specificity of the 11 symptom items, whereas adding suicidal ideation items did not. The 11 RCADS items accurately discriminated between the community and clinic-referred sample with anxiety and/or depressive disorders and have the potential to quickly and accurately identify adolescents with these disorders in community settings

Meeting of minds: imagining the future of child and youth mental health research from an early career perspective

Child and youth mental health is an international public health and research priority. We are an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral network of UK-based early career researchers (ECRs) with an interest in child and youth mental health research. In this paper, we reflect on ongoing challenges and areas for growth, offering recommendations for key stakeholders in our field including researchers, institutions, and funders. We present a vision from an ECR perspective of what child and youth mental health research could look like moving forward and we explore how the research infrastructure can support ECRs and the wider research field in making this vision a reality. We focus specifically on a) embracing complexity; b) centering diverse voices; and c) facilitating sustainable research environments and funding systems. We present recommendations for all key partners to consider alongside their local contexts and communities to actively and collaboratively drive progress and transformative change.</p

The utility of the SCAS-C/P to detect specific anxiety disorders among clinically anxious children

Questionnaire measures offer a time and cost-effective alternative to full diagnostic assessments for identifying and differentiating between potential anxiety disorders and are commonly used in clinical practice. Little is known, however, about the capacity of questionnaire measures to detect specific anxiety disorders in clinically anxious preadolescent children. This study aimed to establish the ability of the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS) subscales to identify children with specific anxiety disorders in a large clinic-referred sample (N = 1,438) of children aged 7 to 12 years. We examined the capacity of the Separation Anxiety, Social Phobia, Generalized Anxiety, and Physical Injury Fears (phobias) subscales to discriminate between children with and without the target disorder. We also identified optimal cutoff scores on subscales for accurate identification of children with the corresponding disorder, and examined the contribution of child, mother, and father reports. The Separation Anxiety subscale was able to accurately identify children with separation anxiety disorder, and this was replicated across all 3 reporters. Mother- and father-reported Social Phobia subscales also accurately identified children with social anxiety disorder, although child report was only able to accurately detect social anxiety disorder in girls. Using 2 or more reporters improved the sensitivity of the Separation Anxiety and Social Phobia subscales but reduced specificity. The Generalized Anxiety and Physical Injury Fears subscales failed to accurately identify children with the corresponding disorders. These findings have implications for the potential use of mother-, father-, and child-report SCAS subscales to detect specific disorders in preadolescent children in clinical settings