title: The impact of brief parental anxiety management on child anxiety treatment outcomes: a controlled trial.
abstract: Parental anxiety is a risk to optimal treatment outcomes for childhood anxiety disorders. The current trial examined whether the addition of a brief parental anxiety management (BPAM) program to family cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) was more efficacious than family CBT-only in treating childhood anxiety disorders. Two hundred nine children (aged 6-13 years, 104 female, 90% Caucasian) with a principal anxiety disorder were randomly allocated to family CBT with a five-session program of BPAM (n = 109) or family CBT-only (n = 100). Family CBT comprised the Cool Kids program, a structured 12-week program that included both mothers and fathers. Overall, results revealed that the addition of BPAM did not significantly improve outcomes for the child or the parent compared to the CBT-only group at posttreatment or 6-month follow-up. Overall, however, children with nonanxious parents were more likely to be diagnosis free for any anxiety disorder compared to children with anxious parents at posttreatment and 6-month follow-up. BPAM did not produce greater reductions in parental anxiety. The results support previous findings that parent anxiety confers poorer treatment outcomes for childhood anxiety disorders. Nevertheless the addition of BPAM anxiety management for parents in its current format did not lead to additional improvements when used as an adjunct to family CBT in the treatment of the child's anxiety disorder. Future benefits may come from more powerful methods of reducing parents' anxiety.
authors.affiliation: a Centre for Emotional Health, Department of Psychology , Macquarie University.
authors.forename: Jennifer L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Hudson
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Newall
authors.forename: Ronald M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Rapee
authors.forename: Heidi J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Lyneham
authors.forename: Carolyn C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Schniering
authors.forename: Viviana M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Wuthrich
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Seeley-Wait
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.forename: Natalie S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Gar
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005196:Family Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D016896:Treatment Outcome