An investigation of parent-child interactions in anxious adolescents and a pilot evaluation of a novel family treatment

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One in twenty British adolescents has an anxiety disorder. These disorders are more common and severe than in younger children. There is a psychological treatment, cognitive-behaviour therapy, which is effective in treating anxiety disorders in young people generally. However, treatments do not adequately address the specific needs of adolescents. There is evidence that parents of anxious children are less likely to let their children do things for themselves, and also respond in fearful ways to challenging situations, compared to parents of non-anxious children. Early reports suggest similar patterns may occur within families of anxious adolescence. This research has the following aims: first, to understand the family processes experienced by anxious adolescents; second, to conduct experiments to establish whether parents‘ behaviours lead to adolescent anxiety; and finally, to develop and test a new psychological treatment through a small clinical trial with anxious adolescents and their parents to target the key parental behaviours that contribute to adolescent anxiety. This research has the potential to have a significant impact on clinical practice by providing greater understanding of adolescent anxiety and improving therapeutic techniques to more effectively treat anxiety in adolescence.