A new parenting-based group intervention for young anxious children: results of a randomized controlled trial

Objective Despite recent advances, there are still no interventions that have been developed for the specific treatment of young children who have anxiety disorders. This study examined the impact of a new, cognitive–behaviorally based parenting intervention on anxiety symptoms. Method Families of 74 anxious children (aged 9 years or less) took part in a randomized controlled trial, which compared the new 10-session, group-format intervention with a wait-list control condition. Outcome measures included blinded diagnostic interview and self-reports from parents and children. Results Intention-to-treat analyses indicated that children whose parent(s) received the intervention were significantly less anxious at the end of the study than those in the control condition. Specifically, 57% of those receiving the new intervention were free of their primary disorder, compared with 15% in the control condition. Moreover, 32% of treated children were free of any anxiety diagnosis at the end of the treatment period, compared with 6% of those in the control group. Treatment gains were maintained at 12-month follow-up. Conclusions This new parenting-based intervention may represent an advance in the treatment of this previously neglected group. Clinical trial registration information: Anxiety in Young Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a New Cognitive-Behaviourally Based Parenting Intervention; http://www.isrctn.org/; ISRCTN12166762

Epidemiology of childhood anxiety: longitudinal perspectives

Introduction: Anxiety is cited as one of the most common mental disorders of youth, with serious implications for academic and social outcomes and future psychopathology. Research has increased greatly in the last 25 years but there are still large gaps in our understanding of the descriptive epidemiology of anxiety and the majority of research focuses on the aetiology of adult disorder. The aim of this thesis was to use the best available evidence from studies using a prospective design and diagnostic outcome measures, to understand the onset and trajectory of anxiety through the lifespan and to determine whether childhood anxiety predicts adult anxiety disorders. Method: Principal Investigators from all prospective longitudinal studies of child mental health were approached in order to gain access to diagnostic data relating to anxiety disorders in youth. Two studies released appropriate data which are analysed here to determine prevalence, first onset, and course of anxiety, with adult outcome assessed in the one cohort that released appropriate adult data. These data are then synthesised with the published data in order to provide a coherent summary of the current picture of the descriptive epidemiology of anxiety disorders, in particular social anxiety and generalised anxiety or overanxious disorder. Results: New data from a UK birth cohort show the different anxiety disorders to have specific patterns of prevalence and onset, suggesting early onset for separation anxiety and specific phobia. Analysis of data from New York suggests moderate homotypic continuity of social anxiety and overanxious disorder in childhood and adolescence. When examined together the available data show the importance of methodological considerations when determining the prevalence of anxiety in childhood and suggest that although substantial proportions of children will suffer from anxiety most will be disorders of short duration with favourable outcomes. There are, however, consistently across studies 20-30% with chronic anxiety who are likely to have poor outcomes. It is clear that a substantial proportion of adult sufferers have early onset but the figures are inconsistent across different studies. Discussion: The results are discussed in light of the wider literature, and implications for methodology and clinical applications are presented. The limitations of the current approach and directions for future research are briefly outlined

The relationship between parental anxiety and child-related cognition: an experimental approach

This study examined child-related cognition in parents of 3- to 9-year-old children (N = 30). Parents completed cognitive tasks to examine their interpretation of ambiguous scenarios, and to see how they generated and evaluated possible outcomes to neutral child-related events, including predicted child and parent distress. These tasks were completed under two conditions: (i) after parents’ anxiety had been manipulated upwards by the experimenter; (ii) whilst in their normal state. When the parents completed the cognitive tasks in the ‘anxious’ condition, they interpreted child-related ambiguous scenarios as more threatening in the open response format [t(29) = 2.43, P < 0.05], generated a greater proportion of negative outcomes to neutral child-related events, [t(29) = 4.30, P < 0.001] and predicted these outcomes would be more distressing for both their child [t(29) = 2.71, P < 0.05] and themselves [t(29) = 4.76, P < 0.001]. No significant differences were found in the forced choice responses to the ambiguous scenarios, and parents did not predict negative outcomes to be more likely in the ‘anxious’ condition. These results suggest that parental anxiety leads to an increase in child-related cognition characterised by threat and distress. The implications of these findings and area for future research are discussed

The relationship between parenting factors and trait anxiety: Mediating role of cognitive errors and metacognition

No description supplie

A new parenting-based group intervention for young anxious children: results of a randomized controlled trial

Objective Despite recent advances, there are still no interventions that have been developed for the specific treatment of young children who have anxiety disorders. This study examined the impact of a new, cognitive–behaviorally based parenting intervention on anxiety symptoms. Method Families of 74 anxious children (aged 9 years or less) took part in a randomized controlled trial, which compared the new 10-session, group-format intervention with a wait-list control condition. Outcome measures included blinded diagnostic interview and self-reports from parents and children. Results Intention-to-treat analyses indicated that children whose parent(s) received the intervention were significantly less anxious at the end of the study than those in the control condition. Specifically, 57% of those receiving the new intervention were free of their primary disorder, compared with 15% in the control condition. Moreover, 32% of treated children were free of any anxiety diagnosis at the end of the treatment period, compared with 6% of those in the control group. Treatment gains were maintained at 12-month follow-up. Conclusions This new parenting-based intervention may represent an advance in the treatment of this previously neglected group. Clinical trial registration information: Anxiety in Young Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a New Cognitive-Behaviourally Based Parenting Intervention; http://www.isrctn.org/; ISRCTN12166762