Cool Little Kids: Empowering Parents, Easing Anxiety: A study on the Influence of Parental Anxiety and Parental Engagement on Child Anxiety

Anxiety disorders are highly prevalent in young children, underscoring the need for early prevention. To prevent anxiety disorders in young behaviourally inhibited children a parent-focused prevention program called ‘Cool Little Kids’ has been developed. Previous research indicated that both parental engagement and parental anxiety can influence the effectiveness of such programs. Yet, research on the interplay between these factors is limited. Therefore, we investigated the mediating effect of engagement on the relationship between parental anxiety and the effectiveness of ‘Cool Little Kids’. The current study is part of the CLK research project performed by Leiden University. Participants were parents of behaviourally inhibited children between the ages of two and six (N = 42). Parents were interviewed before and after the training about the anxiety of the child, completed a questionnaire about their own anxiety, and were observed during the training to assess parental engagement....Show moreAnxiety disorders are highly prevalent in young children, underscoring the need for early prevention. To prevent anxiety disorders in young behaviourally inhibited children a parent-focused prevention program called ‘Cool Little Kids’ has been developed. Previous research indicated that both parental engagement and parental anxiety can influence the effectiveness of such programs. Yet, research on the interplay between these factors is limited. Therefore, we investigated the mediating effect of engagement on the relationship between parental anxiety and the effectiveness of ‘Cool Little Kids’. The current study is part of the CLK research project performed by Leiden University. Participants were parents of behaviourally inhibited children between the ages of two and six (N = 42). Parents were interviewed before and after the training about the anxiety of the child, completed a questionnaire about their own anxiety, and were observed during the training to assess parental engagement. Mediation analyses were performed to investigate our hypotheses. No significant meditating effects between parental anxiety, parental engagement and the reduction of the child’s anxiety were found. However, results indicated that parental anxiety had a negative effect on the reduction of the child’s social anxiety. This suggests that CLK should possibly be adapted towards anxious parents of socially anxious children. Furthermore, parental engagement positively influenced the reduction of the child’s separation anxiety. This could be explained by the more central role of parents in separation anxiety but can also suggest that CLK is more suitable for reducing separation anxiety symptoms compared to symptoms of specific phobias and social anxiety and therefore needs adaptation. These results should be handled with care because the current study had several limitations, like a small sample, no control group and many analyses were performed without correction. So, extensive research is necessary to confirm our findings. In conclusion, our findings suggest that in general, parental anxiety and parental engagement do not influence the reduction of the child’s anxiety after CLK. Prevention programs such as CLK are essential to prevent anxiety disorders from occurring and therefore research is needed to improve the effectiveness of these programs.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

Cool Little Kids: Empowering Parents, Easing Anxiety: A study on the Influence of Parental Anxiety and Parental Engagement on Child Anxiety