Child Anxiety Disorders: Parenting and Temperament Effects

Anxiety disorders are among the most common childhood disorders. Although anxiety is a normal part of life and growing up, for some children this anxiety becomes chronic, relentless, and progressively worse if left untreated. Physical symptoms typically accompany the intense anxiety caused by the disorder, and may include blushing, profuse sweating, trembling, nausea, and difficulty talking. Effective treatments for anxiety disorders are available, and research continues to yield new, improved therapies that can help most people with anxiety disorders to lead productive, fulfilling lives. This study will look at similarities and differences in family processes and child temperament among children with and without symptoms of anxiety disorders. Results from this study may improve future treatment of children with anxiety disorders.

Families participating in this observational study will be mailed parent and child questionnaires that should be completed prior to the first study session. The child questionnaires will ask for information regarding the child's feelings and family interactions. Parent questionnaires will ask for information about their own personal feelings as well as the child's feelings, symptoms, and behaviors. Study participation will last 2 days. On the first day of the study, families will undergo a 3-hour diagnostic interview in which questions similar to those found on the questionnaires will be revisited. On the second day, mothers and their children will participate in three different observation tasks that explore how families interact and respond to certain situations. These tasks may include discussing certain anxiety-provoking situations, putting puzzles together, and creating an ending to a story. Before each task, the child will be placed alone in a separate room where the child will be asked to relax. Throughout the tasks, the child's heart rate and breathing will be recorded by a machine. The tasks will be videotaped but will be viewed only by research staff for data analysis purposes and to ensure that all safety procedures were followed. Upon study completion, if it appears that a child has an anxiety disorder, parents of the child will be notified and will receive treatment referrals as needed.