Temperament and parenting predicting anxiety change in cognitive behavioral therapy: The role of mothers, fathers, and children

Abstract

Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. t r a c tObjective: A considerable amount of children with anxiety disorders do not benefit sufficiently from cognitive behavioral treatment. The present study examines the predictive role of child temperament, parent temperament and parenting style in the context of treatment outcome. Method: Participants were 145 children and adolescents (ages 8-18) with DSM-IV-TR anxiety disorders who received a 12-session CBT program and were assessed at pretreatment, posttreatment and three months follow-up. Multiple-regression analyses were used to evaluate the following pretreatment and posttreatment variables as potential predictors of treatment response at follow-up: baseline level of anxiety symptoms, child reported maternal and paternal rearing style (emotional warmth, rejection, and overprotection), parent reported child temperament traits (negative affect, effortful control, and extraversion), and mothers' and fathers' self-report temperament traits. Results: More maternal negative affect and less emotional warmth as perceived by the child before treatment were related to less favorable treatment outcome (accounting for 29% of the variance in anxiety at follow-up). Furthermore, maternal negative affect and children's extraversion measured after treatment also predicted anxiety at follow-up (together accounting for 19% of the variance). Paternal temperament and parenting style were unrelated to treatment outcome, as were children's pretreatment temperament traits. Conclusion:The results suggest that tailoring intervention to include strategies to reduce maternal negative affect and promote an emotional warm rearing style may improve treatment outcome.

Maternal predictors of anxiety risk in young males with fragile X

“…Treatment was associated with fewer anxiety disorders 1 year after the intervention, suggesting that parents can successfully reduce anxiety symptoms in children, given appropriate support. However, studies have also demonstrated that maternal anxiety, negative affect, and low emotional warmth predict poorer child responses to anxiety treatments [Festen et al, ; Hudson et al, ]. Parenting stress may also hinder treatments contingent on parent‐child interactions, as higher levels of parenting stress are associated with fewer parent‐child interactions in families affected by FXS [Wheeler et al, ].…”

Profiles of Temperament among Youth with Specific Phobias: Implications for CBT Outcomes

“…Similarly, Festen and colleagues (2013) showed that children seeking treatment for anxiety disorders were more responsive when they were reported to have higher initial manifestations of surgency. Person-centered patterns of temperament—considering the ways groups of children with different dispositional patterns across multiple temperament factors vary in outcomes—have also shown implications for child psychopathology.…”

“…Despite the considerable literature base on temperament influences within ADs, few studies have examined specific patterns of temperament in youth with SP or how patterns of temperament may promote or hinder treatment and clinical outcomes in such youth. Understanding these patterns might clarify an important contributor to different patterns of treatment response for SP (Festen et al, 2013; Ollendick & Davis, 2013). Although OST is an effective treatment for SPs, as noted earlier, a subset of children with SPs do not respond to OST.…”

Parental Involvement in Remotely Delivered CBT Interventions for Anxiety Problems in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review

“…It appears that gender and several personality characteristics (extraversion) can influence online counseling, help-seeking [43]. Parental behaviors and parental cognitions have also been related to CBT outcomes [44,45], with CBT treatment for anxious youth successfully changing parent-related variables (parenting, cognitions). Family accommodation for anxiety, defined as the involvement of parents in an anxious youth's efforts to avoid anxiety-provoking activities/situations, is another important factor that should be considered.…”