Does parental communication style affect emotion regulation among children who initially exhibit high levels of fear and anxiety? Although recent correlational research has demonstrated a linkage between parental communication behaviors, such as excessive catastrophizing, and children?s manifestations of fear and anxiety, it is not clear if parental communication behaviors directly influence children?s ability to regulate these emotions. Intervention studies can test whether experimentally manipulating current family interaction patterns affects children?s ability to regulate fear and anxiety. The proposed research will provide a preliminary experimental test of the relationship between parental communication behavior and children?s regulation of anxiety. Some 40 clinically anxious youth, aged 7-13, will be randomly assigned to a family intervention program for childhood anxiety problems, which includes extensive parent communication training, or a child intervention program without parent-training. The relative impact of the family intervention program versus the child intervention program for improving parental communication behaviors -- such as catastrophizing -- will be evaluated. Then, the impact of changes in parental communication behaviors on children?s ability to regulate fear and anxiety will be tested. Observed parenting and child anxiety as well as physiological arousal will serve as primary outcome measures.
| McLeod, Bryce D; Islam, Nadia Y; Chiu, Angela W et al. (2014) The relationship between alliance and client involvement in CBT for child anxiety disorders. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol 43:735-41 |
| Drahota, Amy; Sterling, Lindsey; Hwang, Wei-Chin et al. (2013) Daily living skills in school-age children with and without anxiety disorders. Br J Clin Psychol 52:107-12 |
| Chiu, Angela W; McLeod, Bryce D; Har, Kim et al. (2009) Child-therapist alliance and clinical outcomes in cognitive behavioral therapy for child anxiety disorders. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 50:751-8 |
| Wood, Jeffrey J; Piacentini, John C; Southam-Gerow, Michael et al. (2006) Family cognitive behavioral therapy for child anxiety disorders. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 45:314-21 |
| Wood, Jeffrey J (2006) Parental intrusiveness and children's separation anxiety in a clinical sample. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 37:73-87 |
| Wood, Jeffrey J; McLeod, Bryce D; Sigman, Marian et al. (2003) Parenting and childhood anxiety: theory, empirical findings, and future directions. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 44:134-51 |
