Vicarious Improvement Among Parents Participating in Child-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety

Abstract

Parental variables likely have important and bidirectional influences on the etiology of child anxiety. Although some child-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (CCBT) anxiety trials have found vicarious improvements among parents who participated in their children’s treatment, this is an understudied area. We hypothesized that parental variables (psychopathology, stress, and burden) will significantly decrease from pre- to post-CCBT and will be associated with child treatment response. We explored whether intervention delivery method—in-person CCBT versus parent-mediated bibliotherapy—influenced vicarious parental improvements. Parental variables decreased from pre- to post-CCBT and were associated with child treatment response. Effects did not interact with delivery method. Parent participation in anxiety CCBT may result in vicarious improvements for parents.

Keywords:

• Bibliotherapy
• cognitive behavioral therapy
• child anxiety
• mental health
• parental factors

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the participants and families for their time and effort.

Disclosure statement

We have no competing or potential conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) grant to DAC (MH072952).