Effects of Parental Behavior on Child Anxiety Regulation

NCT ID: NCT00593515

Last Updated: 2008-01-15

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: PHASE2
• Total Enrollment: 40 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2000-03-31
• Study Completion Date: 2004-04-30

Brief Summary

Does parenting style affect emotion regulation among children who initially demonstrate high levels of fear and anxiety? Although recent correlational research has demonstrated a linkage between parental behaviors, such as excessive intrusiveness, and children's manifestations of fear and anxiety, it is not clear if parenting behaviors directly influence children's ability to regulate these emotions. Alternatively, these parental behaviors may be elicited by children who express fears and anxieties more frequently than other children do. Experimental research designs would offer a more definitive test of these competing explanations of the extant correlational findings. Intervention studies, in particular, can test whether experimentally manipulating current family interaction patterns affects children's ability to regulate emotion. This study provides a preliminary experimental test of the relationship between parental behavior and children's regulation of fear and anxiety. Some 40 clinically anxious youth, aged 6-13, were 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. By comparing these two interventions, we tested if it was possible to improve parenting behaviors-such as intrusiveness-through intensive parent-training, above and beyond the effects of involving children in a child intervention program. We then tested the impact of this change in parental behaviors on children's ability to regulate fear and anxiety. We hypothesized that parent-training would reduce intrusiveness, which would in turn improve children's anxiety outcomes.

Conditions

Separation Anxiety Disorder; Social Phobia; Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

1

Family CBT

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Family cognitive behavioral therapy

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

12-16 weekly sessions of family cognitive behavioral therapy, 60-80 minutes each

2

Child-focused CBT

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Child-focused cognitive behavioral therapy

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

12-16 weekly sessions of child-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, 60-80 minutes each

Interventions

Family cognitive behavioral therapy

12-16 weekly sessions of family cognitive behavioral therapy, 60-80 minutes each

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Child-focused cognitive behavioral therapy

12-16 weekly sessions of child-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, 60-80 minutes each

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• The child met DSM-IV criteria for a diagnosis of a principal anxiety disorder based on a semi-structured interview
• The child was not taking any psychiatric medication at the initial assessment, or was taking a stable dose of psychiatric medication (i.e., at least one month at a stable dose prior to the baseline assessment), and
• If medication was being used, families stated an intention to maintain that dose throughout the study.

Exclusion Criteria

• The child was currently in child-focused psychotherapy
• The family was currently in family therapy or a parenting class
• Either the child or the parents evidenced psychotic symptoms
• The child began taking psychiatric medication or increased his/her dose of medication during the intervention, or
• For any reason the child or parents appeared unable to participate in the intervention program.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 6 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 13 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

NIH

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of California, Los Angeles

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

UCLA

Principal Investigators

Jeffrey Wood, Ph.D.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of California, Los Angeles

Marian Sigman, Ph.D.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of California, Los Angeles

Locations

UCLA

Los Angeles, California, United States

Countries

United States

References

Wood JJ, Piacentini JC, Southam-Gerow M, Chu BC, Sigman M. Family cognitive behavioral therapy for child anxiety disorders. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2006 Mar;45(3):314-321. doi: 10.1097/01.chi.0000196425.88341.b0.

Reference Type: RESULT

PMID: 16540816 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

1F31MH064999

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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