The Importance of Treating Your Child’s Anxiety

By Alicia Byelich, MS

Is your child struggling with anxiety? If so, they are not alone. In youth, an anxiety disorder is the most common mental health disorder (Villabo et al., 2018) affecting 15-20% of youth (Kagan et al. 2016; Salloum et al., 2018; Wu et al., 2019) with about 75% of these youth beginning symptoms between the ages of 11 and 21 (Starrenburg et al., 2017). As a parent your hope may be that your child will “get over” their anxiety or “grow out of it” however research has shown, when high levels of anxiety are left untreated, anxiety is known to continue into adulthood (Starrenburg et al., 2017).

Unfortunately, research has shown that anxiety is associated with:

• Developmental delays (Swan et al., 2018; Starrenburg et al., 2017).

• Missed opportunities for social, occupational, and academic exploration which leads to decreased life satisfaction and as your child ages difficulty adjusting to work, increased family problems, lower relationship quality in adulthood (Swan et al., 2018; Wu et al., 2020; Salloum et al., 2018;).

• Increased suicidal ideation (Kagan et al., 2016)

• Development later of comorbid conditions (Swan et al., 2018; Kagan et al., 2016; Villabo et al., 2018)

• Increased substance use (Swan et al., 2018; Kagan et al., 2016)

• Increased criminal behavior in adulthood (Swan et al., 2018)

• Less adaptive coping strategies when compared to their peers (Suveg et al., 2018)

That list can seem a bit overwhelming! However, the good news is that, since anxiety is so common, quite a bit of research has been done on anxiety. Studies have found, time and time again, that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a “first line of treatment” (Villabo et al., 2018) with efficacy studies showing that 55%-60% of children who take part in CBT show a significant reduction in symptoms (Villabo et al, 2018; Kagan et al., 2016) and 20%-46% achieve full remission of symptoms (Wu et al, 2019). The goal of any treatment plan is a reduction in symptoms, a full remission is an added bonus, but gaining tools through CBT to help with anxious symptoms is the ultimate goal. These tools can be taught and utilized throughout your child’s entire life and then they can teach these same tools to their children. But, in order to feel better, your child needs to be educated and then practice using the tools that studies have found to help.

Now that you have seen what studies have shown about the long-term negative side effects of anxiety and the treatment that is most effective, what can you do to help prepare your child to get the most out of counseling? Not surprisingly, there have been studies on that as well.

According to Bandura, “belief that one can effect change is a key, if not mandatory, ingredient for successful behavior change” (Suveg et al., 2018, p.570). What does this mean for you as a parent? Let your child know that you believe they will gain skills that can help them through counseling; be excited for them and encourage them about counseling. Studies have shown that youth who expected to gain skills and improve their anxiety through counseling complied with treatment and were more willing to work through their fears, even when it was uncomfortable to do so.

Who enjoys feeling uncomfortable in their fears? I know I don’t! I certainly don’t welcome the feelings anxiety can bring!

However, if your child knows those uncomfortable experiences aren’t dangerous and can work through them, studies have found compliance with treatment showed a relationship with symptom change posttreatment (Wu et al., 2020; Norris et al., 2019) and a greater chance of reaching their therapeutic goals (Wu et al., 2020).

Your child can sense your energy! One of the most important ways you can help to help your child is to raise their expectations of improvement with your encouragement. So be encouraging!

Stay tuned for a future blog on Tips for Parents: How you can help your child cope with anxiety.

______________________________

References:

Kagan, E. R., Peterman, J. S., Carper, M. M., & Kendall, P. C. (2016). Accommodation and treatment of anxious youth. Depression and Anxiety, 33(9), 840. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.22520

Norris, L. A., Rifkin, L. S., Olino, T. M., Piacentini, J., Albano, A. M., Birmaher, B., Ginsburg, G., Walkup, J., Compton, S. N., Gosch, E., & Kendall, P. C. (2019). Multi-informant expectancies and treatment outcomes for anxiety in youth. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 50(6), 1002–1010. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-019-00900-w

Salloum, A., Andel, R., Lewin, A. B., Johnco, C., McBride, N. M., & Storch, E. A. (2018). Family accommodation as a predictor of cognitive-behavioral treatment outcome for childhood anxiety. Families in Society, 99(1), 45–55. https://doi.org/10.1177/1044389418756326

Starrenburg, M. L. A., Kuijpers, R. C. M. W., Kleinjan, M., Hutschemaekers, G. J. M., & Engels, R. C. M. E. (2017). Effectiveness of a cognitive behavioral therapy-based indicated prevention program for children with elevated anxiety levels: A randomized controlled trial. Prevention Science, 18(1), 31-39. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-016-0725-5

Suveg, C., Jones, A., Davis, M., Jacob, M. L., Morelen, D., Thomassin, K., & Whitehead, M. (2018). emotion-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy for youth with anxiety disorders: A randomized trial. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 46(3), 569–580. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-017-0319-0

Swan, A. J., Kendall, P. C., Olino, T., Ginsburg, G., Keeton, C., Compton, S., Piacentrini, J., Peris, T., Sakolsky, D., Birmaher, B., & Albano, A.M. (2018). Results from the Child/Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Longitudinal Study (CAMELS): Functional outcomes. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 86(9), 738-750. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000334

Villabo, M.A., Narayanan, M., Compton, S.N., Kendall, P.C. & Neumer, S.-P. (2018). Cognitive-behavioral therapy for youth anxiety: An effectiveness evaluation in community practice. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 86(9), 751-764. https://doi.org/10/1037/ccp0000326

Wu, M. S., Caporino, N. E., Peris, T. S., Pérez, J., Thamrin, H., Albano, A. M., Kendall, P. C., Walkup, J. T., Birmaher, B., Compton, S. N., & Piacentini, J. (2020). the impact of treatment expectations on exposure process and treatment outcome in childhood anxiety disorders. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 48(1), 79–89. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-019-00574-x