Preventing child anxiety disorders: Identifying therapeutic targets and improving access

焦虑症是全世界儿童和青少年中最常见的精神健康障碍。它们通常在12岁之前开始，在父母有焦虑症的孩子中比在父母没有焦虑症的孩子中更常见。此外，焦虑症预示着负面的教育、就业、身体和心理健康结果，并与个人和社会的巨大成本相关。因此，预防它们是可取的。我们必须在两个方面采取行动，以防止焦虑症的发展。首先，我们需要了解儿童焦虑发展的机制，明确可以在焦虑预防规划中针对的可改变的风险因素。为了解决这个问题，我们将进行实验研究，重点研究儿童的气质和特定的焦虑父母行为在儿童焦虑发展中的作用。这将向我们展示婴儿是如何从父母那里获得焦虑的。第二，改善有需要的人获得焦虑预防规划的机会至关重要。为此，我们将调查患有焦虑症的父母希望和期望从一个项目中得到什么，以防止他们年幼的孩子患上焦虑症。该项目具有潜在的临床和科学影响。它将通过明确修改目标和确定获得焦虑预防的障碍和促进因素，为临床预防提供信息。该项目将包括以非临床人群为基础的科学实验室实验，以及对使用NHS心理健康服务进行焦虑障碍心理治疗的父母进行定性访谈。

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health disorders in children and young people worldwide.They typically begin before 12 years of age and are more common in the children of parents with anxietydisorders than in children of non-anxious parents. Moreover, anxiety disorders predict negativeeducational, employment, physical and mental health outcomes, and are associated with substantialcosts for both individuals and societies. Consequently, their prevention is desirable.We must act on two fronts to prevent the development of anxiety disorders. First, we need to understandthe mechanisms involved in children's development of anxiety, specifying modifiable risk factors that canbe targeted in anxiety prevention programmes. To address this, we will conduct experimental studies,focusing on the roles of children's temperament and particular anxious parenting behaviours in children'sdevelopment of anxiety. These will show us how infants acquire anxiety from their parents. Second, it iscrucial to improve access to anxiety prevention programmes for those who need them. To this end, wewill investigate what parents with anxiety disorders would want and expect from a programme to preventthe development of anxiety disorders in their young children.This project has potential clinical and scientific impact. It will inform clinical prevention by specifyingtargets for modification and by identifying barriers and facilitators to access to anxiety prevention. Theproject will involve both scientific laboratory-based experiments with non-clinical populations andqualitative interviews with parents who have used NHS mental health services to engage inpsychological therapy for an anxiety disorder.