Empowering Anxious Parents to Manage Child Avoidance Behaviors

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Anxiety Disorders

In brief

Efforts to develop and disseminate evidence based practices (EBPs) for youth anxiety have made great strides. Still, up to 82.2% of youth who need mental health treatment for anxiety never access care or drop out prematurely; commonly cited barriers to treatment are shortage of care, transportation limitations, financial burden, and gatekeeping behaviors by caretakers. As such, there is great need for accessible, scalable interventions that can ameliorate the global burden of youth anxiety, including those that help prevent the onset of anxiety in high-risk children. Single session interventions (SSIs), which have prevented and reduced child anxiety across numerous trials to date, may offer a promising solution, given their potential disseminability and cost-effectiveness. The proposed randomized trial will evaluate the effects of a novel, web-based, self-guided SSI designed to systematically reduce parent accommodation: a parenting behavior identified as a strong risk factor for anxiety in offspring. Study aims will be three-fold: (1) to examine the SSI's direct effects on parental accommodation, relative to an information-only control; (2) to assess the SSI's immediate effects on parents' perceived ability to help their children manage distressing situations; and (3) to evaluate the SSI's feasibility and acceptability. We will recruit parents reporting elevated anxiety levels, as children of anxious parents are at particular risk for developing anxiety symptoms themselves. Results may suggest a promising approach to preventing anxiety in at-risk children.

Key facts

Study ID
NCT04453865
Run by
Stony Brook University
People needed
300
Starts
2020-07-05
Expected to finish
2020-10-01
Last updated by the study team
2021-03-18

Who can join

Age: any. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

You may not qualify if…

Where it is running

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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