Effects of Parental Behavior on Child Anxiety Regulation

Study Description

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Study Description Study Design Arms and Interventions Outcome Measures Eligibility Criteria Contacts and Locations More Information

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.

Condition or disease	Intervention/treatment	Phase
Separation Anxiety Disorder; Social Phobia; Generalized Anxiety Disorder	Behavioral: Family cognitive behavioral therapy; Behavioral: Child-focused cognitive behavioral therapy	Phase 2

Study Design

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Study Description Study Design Arms and Interventions Outcome Measures Eligibility Criteria Contacts and Locations More Information

Study Type :	Interventional (Clinical Trial)
Actual Enrollment :	40 participants
Allocation:	Randomized
Intervention Model:	Parallel Assignment
Masking:	Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary Purpose:	Treatment
Official Title:	Effects of Parental Behavior on Child Anxiety Regulation
Study Start Date :	March 2000
Actual Primary Completion Date :	April 2004
Actual Study Completion Date :	April 2004

Arms and Interventions

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Study Description Study Design Arms and Interventions Outcome Measures Eligibility Criteria Contacts and Locations More Information

Arm	Intervention/treatment
Experimental: 1; Family CBT	Behavioral: Family cognitive behavioral therapy; 12-16 weekly sessions of family cognitive behavioral therapy, 60-80 minutes each
Active Comparator: 2; Child-focused CBT	Behavioral: Child-focused cognitive behavioral therapy; 12-16 weekly sessions of child-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, 60-80 minutes each

Outcome Measures

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Study Description Study Design Arms and Interventions Outcome Measures Eligibility Criteria Contacts and Locations More Information

Primary Outcome Measures :

1. Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule--Child and Parent Versions [ Time Frame: Posttreatment ]

Secondary Outcome Measures :

1. Multidimension Anxiety Scale for Children [ Time Frame: Posttreatment ]

Eligibility Criteria

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Study Description Study Design Arms and Interventions Outcome Measures Eligibility Criteria Contacts and Locations More Information

Ages Eligible for Study:	6 Years to 13 Years (Child)
Sexes Eligible for Study:	All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:	No

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.

Contacts and Locations

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Study Description Study Design Arms and Interventions Outcome Measures Eligibility Criteria Contacts and Locations More Information

Locations

United States, California
UCLA
Los Angeles, California, United States, 90095

Sponsors and Collaborators

University of California, Los Angeles

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Investigators

Principal Investigator:	Jeffrey Wood, Ph.D.	University of California, Los Angeles
Principal Investigator:	Marian Sigman, Ph.D.	University of California, Los Angeles

More Information

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Study Description Study Design Arms and Interventions Outcome Measures Eligibility Criteria Contacts and Locations More Information

Publications of Results:

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):314-21.

Responsible Party:	Jeffrey J. Wood, UCLA
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:	NCT00593515 History of Changes
Other Study ID Numbers:	1F31MH064999 ( U.S. NIH Grant/Contract )
First Posted:	January 15, 2008
Last Update Posted:	January 15, 2008
Last Verified:	January 2008

Additional relevant MeSH terms:

Disease; Anxiety Disorders; Phobia, Social; Anxiety, Separation	Pathologic Processes; Mental Disorders; Phobic Disorders; Neurodevelopmental Disorders