Annotated Bibliography

Child−Parent Interventions for Childhood Anxiety Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

From the article, the main purpose of the research of Child–Parent Interventions for Childhood Anxiety Disorders is to examine the differential effect on anxiety outcomes of child–parent interventions compared to child-focused interventions for children with anxiety disorders. The researchers also looked at the effects of direct child–parent therapies versus child-focused interventions on anxiety outcomes in children with anxiety disorders. The research questions include; Are child–parent interventions more effective than interventions involving solely the child in decreasing anxiety for children with anxiety disorders? And are there differences in the magnitude of effects by type of child–parent intervention? A systematic review methodology was used to search, select, and extract data from studies examining the effects of child–parent interventions against child-focused interventions. The data analysis composed is that the overall mean effect of parent–child interventions was 0.26, 95% confidence interval [0.05, 0.47], p < .05, a small but positive and significant effect, favoring child–parent interventions. Also from the study, the statistical analysis was designed to produce descriptive information on the characteristics of the included studies, the effect size of each intervention on anxiety outcomes, the grand mean effect size, and the heterogeneity of effect sizes around the mean. The findings of the research were that Meta-analytic results revealed a small but overall positive and significant effect of parent–child interventions compared to child-focused individual or group interventions (Stjerneklar et al., 2019). The strength of the research was a comprehensive and systematic search strategy was conducted in an attempt to identify and retrieve all relevant published and unpublished studies meeting inclusion criteria. Future research could assess and report on implementation issues, intervention fidelity, and the cost and benefit of interventions to help clinicians, organizations, and clients make well-informed decisions about treatment (Stjerneklar et al., 2019).

Clinical Practice Guideline for the Assessment and Treatment of Children and Adolescents with Anxiety Disorders

From the article, the main purpose of the research was to compile scientifically supported recommendations for the psychosocial and psychopharmacologic treatment of anxiety. Another purpose is to compile expert-based recommendations for assessing anxiety as part of treatment and implementing empirically based treatments in clinical practice. The research question from the article was how CBT and SSRI are safe and effective treatments? How can anxiety disorders be assessed for determining treatment? The hypothesis was whether CBT and SSRI are effective treatments for adolescents with anxiety. The research design used was a sampling of adolescents who meet certain criteria including age, diagnosis, etc. The variables of interest were the adolescent children between 3 and 18 years of age who have been diagnosed with anxiety. And the children were considered as the dependent variables. The findings suggested that CBT and SSRI have considerable empirical support as safe and effective short-term treatments for anxiety in children and adolescents (Walter et al., 2020). The findings of the research were that children who received the combination of the two treatments had a more effective treatment than if the two treatments were done separately. The strength of the study is that a foundation for new knowledge was laid by learning the effectiveness of the combination of treatments. The limitation is that the professional judgment could be biased and a small sampling of evidence. The future research will look at and examine the different treatments available for effectiveness in helping adolescents with anxiety disorders.

References

Luo, A., & McAloon, J. (2021). Potential mechanisms of change in cognitive behavioral therapy for childhood anxiety: A meta‐analysis.  Depression and Anxiety,  38(2), 220-232.

Stjerneklar, S., Hougaard, E., & Thastum, M. (2019). Guided internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy for adolescent anxiety: predictors of treatment response.  Internet interventions,  15, 116-125.

Walter, H. J., Bukstein, O. G., Abright, A. R., Keable, H., Ramtekkar, U., Ripperger-Suhler, J., & Rockhill, C. (2020). Clinical practice guideline for the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with anxiety disorders.  Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry,  59(10), 1107-1124.