<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Offspring of parents with anxiety disorders have an increased risk of developing anxiety themselves. Very few studies have evaluated interventions aiming to prevent anxiety in offspring of anxious parents. This study was a small (<italic>N</italic>=40) randomized pilot study with three arms evaluating the feasibility of a novel parent support group for anxious parents, the Supporting Anxious Parents Program (SAPP). The primary objective was to evaluate the acceptability of the SAPP. In addition, we also evaluated preliminary effects on child anxiety, parent risk factors, and quality of life, and feasibility of the study design. Excessive parental worry and anxiety and having a child not meeting criteria for an anxiety disorder (6-12 years old), served as inclusion criteria. Thirteen parents were randomly allocated to a group-based intervention, 14 to an individual Internet-based version of the intervention, and 13 to a waitlist control condition. The intervention was developed to target three risk factors involved in the parent-child transmission of anxiety; criticism/low warmth, overprotective behaviors, and modeling of anxiety. The results showed that parents were generally very satisfied with the intervention. We did not find any significant decreases in child anxiety in the intervention conditions. However, for the parents, we found preliminary support for reduced overprotective behaviors, reduced worry, and increased quality of life. The study design was found to be feasible. According to the results, a revision of the intervention is recommended before a full randomized controlled trial could be conducted.</p></abstract>

Offspring of parents with anxiety disorders have an increased risk of developing anxiety themselves. Very few studies have evaluated interventions aiming to prevent anxiety in offspring of anxious parents. This study was a small (N=40) randomized pilot study with three arms evaluating the feasibility of a novel parent support group for anxious parents, the Supporting Anxious Parents Program (SAPP). The primary objective was to evaluate the acceptability of the SAPP. In addition, we also evaluated preliminary effects on child anxiety, parent risk factors, and quality of life, and feasibility of the study design. Excessive parental worry and anxiety and having a child not meeting criteria for an anxiety disorder (6-12 years old), served as inclusion criteria. Thirteen parents were randomly allocated to a group-based intervention, 14 to an individual Internet-based version of the intervention, and 13 to a waitlist control condition. The intervention was developed to target three risk factors involved in the parent-child transmission of anxiety; criticism/low warmth, overprotective behaviors, and modeling of anxiety. The results showed that parents were generally very satisfied with the intervention. We did not find any significant decreases in child anxiety in the intervention conditions. However, for the parents, we found preliminary support for reduced overprotective behaviors, reduced worry, and increased quality of life. The study design was found to be feasible. According to the results, a revision of the intervention is recommended before a full randomized controlled trial could be conducted.

Developing a Brief Parent Training Intervention to Prevent Anxiety in Offspring

Scandinavian Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Developing a Brief Parent Training Intervention to Prevent Anxiety in Offspring"}

Offspring of parents with anxiety disorders have an increased risk of developing anxiety themselves. Very few studies have evaluated interventions aiming to...

Developing a Brief Parent Training Intervention to Prevent Anxiety in Offspring

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Nov 30, 2022

Page range: 123 - 133

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sjcapp-2022-0013

Keywords
parent training, selective prevention, childhood anxiety, transmission of anxiety, feasibility

© 2022 Johan Åhlén, Sarah Vigerland, Madeleine Lindberg, Olivia Gunterberg, Ata Ghaderi, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Developing a Brief Parent Training Intervention to Prevent Anxiety in Offspring

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Nov 30, 2022

Page range: 123 - 133

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sjcapp-2022-0013

Keywordsparent training, selective prevention, childhood anxiety, transmission of anxiety, feasibility

© 2022 Johan Åhlén, Sarah Vigerland, Madeleine Lindberg, Olivia Gunterberg, Ata Ghaderi, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
parent training, selective prevention, childhood anxiety, transmission of anxiety, feasibility