When reading the textbook chapter on Anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders, I began to wonder how often children with anxiety suffer from sleep issues? Sleep is such an essential part of our mental and physical health, especially during childhood development, that I became interested on how children with anxiety sleep. The study I found was on how well sleep could be improved after early childhood anxiety intervention. The study was conducted in 2016 and published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies. The study was conducted during a 12 week cognitive behavioral program in Arizona for anxious youth. The study measured their level of anxiety and the quality of sleep before and after the 12 week program. The researchers found that sleep did improve after the anxiety was treated, but it did not improve completely. This suggests that in addition to anxiety treatment the sleep concerns need to be addressed and treated directly. Clementi, M. A., Alfano, C. A., Holly, L. E., & Pina, A. A. (2016). Sleep-related outcomes following early intervention for childhood anxiety. Journal Of Child And Family Studies, doi:10.1007/s10826-016-0478-6
I think you brought up a good issue that is associated with anxiety. Due to the anxiety, I would imagine that these children would have problems with sleeping. I found the conclusion to the experiment interesting since I would expect that since the anxiety was treated, sleep would imporve. This got me thinking about the way that the research was set up. I would've wanted to know more about the different reasons as to why these children said they felt anxiety, and the time period and seen if maybe that could've affected the outcome of this project (like being in school or having a summer break). I think that this could have been a factor too since we don't really know if these children were perhaps anxious for school-related stuff. Overall, good job in bringing up the sleeping issue with anxiety.
I think it would be interesting to know what about anxiety causes trouble sleeping. Do you think it causes a sort of restlessness in the mind? Or do you think some children may just have anxiety about sleeping and perhaps not waking up on time, for example? I also think it would be interesting to know if sleep disorders are connected with anxiety. Perhaps anxiety is linked with other sleep disorders and that is why treating just the anxiety doesn't necessarily solve the problem. Great topic!
This is a great post! Sleep is vital to our functioning and must be significant in younger children, since they need to be able to focus on constantly receiving information, not only in school but also in their environment. This makes me want to research various ways to cope with lack of sleep in anxious children or different solutions. Also, I am interested in specific methods or activities utilized in the cognitive behavioral program mentioned in the study. Overall, a very great post!
Good Post! I like the topic alot, I could definitely see how lack of sleep co occurring with anxiety could lead to negative things. I was curious how they were measuring the sleep though? Was it based off hours they were sleeping or looking at REM sleep. Children need lots sleep to develop normally I think this was a relevant and really cool topic.
Sleep was a good thing to think about, and not something that came to my mind surprisingly. Personally struggling with GAD since a child, I know that this did affect me and I have had trouble sleeping even now as an adult with it. Considering that during sleep our brains take time to process the day and get ready for the next day, it's hard on the brain when anxiety takes over while you're trying to rest and relax.
This is an incredibly interesting study you found, I'm assuming it wasn't a longitudinal study? The only reason I ask was you stated that even though the anxiety dissipated it didn't completely go away after treatment which meant that the children still had some problems sleeping, if I read everything correctly. So would this lead to more severe sleeping disorders like insomnia within these children? If so would the disorders have an earlier on set than other individuals with these sleep disorders?
Lauren- Interesting thought! I can only imagine if someone has an anxiety disorder how much sleep they would get. I would think close to none. With their thoughts racing constantly, I would think sleep would be very difficult to achieve. I wonder if the study you found looked at the differences with age and maybe across a timeline. Children need sleep to develop properly so I am sure that with them having anxiety they will not achieve a good development. Overall good topic! Very interesting.
It is interesting to see how anxiety affects sleep even after the anxiety has been treated. I, along with others, would have thought sleep would have improved completely after treating the anxiety. Sleep is such a vital part to our health and I'm curious if the lack of sleep due to previous anxiety affects other aspects of their life. I also agree with others about the concept being interesting to look at in a longitudinal study.
I think it's really interesting that you chose to look at sleep in children with anxiety. I agree that children need a lot of sleep to function. Did the paper happen to say if children with anxiety issues get less sleep than children without anxiety?
That's a really interesting question! Do the children with anxiety issues sleep less or do they wake up more often than those without anxiety is what I was wondering while reading your comment!
I’ve always been curious about anxiety and how it plays a role in an evolutionary level. Anxiety has been around for a long time since cavemen tried to go out hunting for their food. The fight or flight response activates when we perceive danger, and a caveman would be able to run away or fight from a potential threat. With that being said, times have changed and those external threats have diminished. So my question is, why is anxiety still around and is there an evolutionary benefit to having it today?
The article I read brought up an interesting point by stating that people with anxiety and depression have lower levels of mortality compared to someone who has depression only. I thought that this would be counter-intuitive since we associate 2 diseases with lower health outcomes. Anxiety is shown to affect an individual with increased vigilance, processing a threat more efficiently, and avoiding situations that might be harmful to us. While these are factors are associated with anxiety, they are different from Generalized Anxiety Disorder since they involved being alert for small things. I found it interesting that the article discussed that parents who are alone, minorities, and individuals from low socioeconomic status have higher anxiety due to a lack of social support, discrimination, and worrying about money. These make sense due to being factors that almost a lot of people can experience in their lives and lead to anxiety. I agree that worrying about these factors is important because it gives you a drive to better yourself so I think that this might be why anxiety is so important because it makes you work harder for your goals. I don’t think there was a direct answer when it comes to the question of whether or not anxiety is an evolutionary benefit, but it makes you think. Anxiety for the above factors makes sense because in a way you’re missing a resource like money or social support so technically it would make you anxious not having that and setting a goal to get it. I feel like the anxiety could potentially disappear when the resource is obtained, but there is still another question. Is there a benefit from anxiety and OCD/specific phobias? These are things that make people anxious so how are they evolutionary beneficial if no resource is being obtained?
Bateson, Melissa et al. (2011). Anxiety: An Evolutionary Approach. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 56 (12), 707-715.
Interesting points! To you last question, I believe that there is not a benefit to OCD that counters or evens out the potential harm that comes with the disorder. For specific phobias however, I think that there could definitely be a benefit but only if the person's phobia is about something that could cause them harm. For example, having a phobia of bears, while causing the person frequent distress, would make them more aware and could potentially cause them to remove themselves from a situation in which their life could be put in danger by a bear. However, having a specific phobia of balloons would probably not prevent such an occurrence.
Wow, Aaron your post was really interesting! Having anxiety is like having an overactive flight or fight response, a characteristic that would serve someone well in prehistoric times. Having an overactive fight or flight response as a normal person living in the 21st century would become maladaptive. It was interesting when you asked if anxiety no longer has an evolutionary benefit then why do we still have it? I think the same can be asked about our vestigal organs. Take the appendix for example, it no longer serves an anatomical purpose, in earlier times the appendix was used when our diet consisted mainly of vegetation. We still have anxiety, but it affects us unlike our appendix or other vestigal organs.
One thing you hear a lot about in the context of anxiety disorders is how it affects interpersonal relationships, and it doesn't surprise me that that problem might extend to children as well. However, a study by Scharfstein, Alfano, Beidel, & Wong raises the question of whether or not this applies to anxiety disorders as a whole, or whether studying all anxiety disorders as one group has introduced error. They argue--and I agree--that it doesn't make sense for children with GAD especially to have fewer friends, since GAD tends to encourage competence and rule-abiding (and more importantly, discourages lack thereof). This study separates out children with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and GAD and studies them separately, drawing conclusions that children with SAD do have fewer positive social interactions and more social problems, but children with GAD on average don't. Instead, children with GAD have the same *quality* of interaction with their peers as healthy controls, but they simply have fewer friends--which, depending on your point of view, doesn't have to be a bad thing. That said, they do concede that it's possible children with GAD have fewer negative social interactions because they don't seek out social interaction as much--but you would think that would extend to individuals with SAD as well. Whatever the reason, this is a compelling argumeent for studying anxiety disorders separately, because it changes the results. More importantly, it seems that it might not be the number of friendships that is relevant to a child but their quality. I'd like to see further data on how these same children rate life satisfaction and perceived social standing as well.
Scharfstein, L., Alfano, C., Beidel, D., & Wong, N. (2011). Children with generalized anxiety disorder do not have peer problems, just fewer friends. Child Psychiatry And Human Development, 42(6), 712-723. doi:10.1007/s10578-011-0245-2
I'm impressed with your discussion! In fact, I think that you made a great distinction and agree that it's not a bad thing that children with GAD having fewer friends is a bad thing! I think that it's a positive thing that they have fewer friends since they have a higher quality and these children could trust them to a higher extent. Also, while these children might have a few friends, it may be the case that these friends are the ones that completely know everything about the child with GAD and may be more understanding people, which is why I agree that I would like to see their life satisfaction (at a later age of course) and see how much peer support they would answer on a questionnaire. I would also like to see how much parent support they have and see how it compares to the different levels of GAD among these children.
I think your topic brings forth a great point, that is some studies of disorders certainly need to be readdressed. GAD and SAD are two very different disorders that cause very distinct outlooks on life from the individuals so I am surprised there are not more studies looking into relationships separately. I definitely agree with you that anxiety disorders should not be lumped into one generalizable group. This study you found was interesting. I think studying anxiety in children is a great way to look at relationships since children are exposed to social interaction situations nearly every day. I would like to know more about the quality over quantity solution. I think it would be easy to mistake quantity as lack of anxiety in social situations when comfort is what should be studied. I loved this topic.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post! I love how you differentiated between the two anxiety disorders, because it is so significant to look at those unique outcomes, especially in research. Specifically, it was interesting to me how the study differentiated between quantity and quality of relationships. I am curious as to how they measured "quality" of relationships in the study. Overall, this post was very intriguing!
Elyssa, Your post was very interesting! One aspect of studying disorders in children that I find compelling are the affects the disorders have on children's lives. Social interactions are a very important part of a child's every day life, and can have a huge impact on their development.All of the disorders we've studied in class thus far have shown to have a negative impact on a child's social life. This is why I found your post particularly interesting when it stated that children with GAD have shown to have quality relationships with their peers. The study from your post did mention that a child with GAD might have less negative social interactions because they partake in less social interactions. However, I wonder if another reason behind these results might be because children with general anxiety might pay closer attention to their interactions with their peers. Perhaps their anxiety causes them to worry about their relationships more than a child without anxiety and thus put an extra effort into them? Then again, I could be wrong.
Hi Elyssa, I thought your post was very interesting. I agree with your point that children with GAD might not simply seek out as many social interactions as children without GAD, thus decreasing the likelihood of having a negative social interaction. What I am interested in is whether or not those with GAD would avoid negative social interactions with their peers and friends as much as possible. Those with anxiety typically do not handle the boat rocking very well. It would make sense to me if they tried to be the people pleaser or avoid conflict in an interpersonal setting. It also interests me if those with fewer friends and with GAD maintain those friendships over a long period of time.
While reading chapter eleven, the topic of social anxiety disorder or social phobia was brought up. I wanted to know a little more on the relationship of attachment style and social anxiety and how they intertwine with each other. A two-year study done by Brumari and Kerns had a few interesting findings. Children with ambivalent attachment, which is the anxious\sometimes attached or distant style, have a greater risk for social anxiety symptoms. This could be because they are typically the most distressed of the styles and seek social opportunities the least. Compared to ambivalent style, avoidant children have been found in some studies to have less anxiety in social situations that do not require intimacy. This finding could possibly be from internalizing less problems that lead to stress for those with avoidant. Ultimately peer evaluation was negative the most for the ambivalent style children. From my perspective, the attachment the children receive from their caregivers contributes greatly to how others perceive them, whether positive or negative. There seems to be characteristics in individuals with avoidant style that can make them more socially accepted with their peers and combats the fears that social anxiety disorder embodies. Brumariu, L. E., & Kerns, K. A. (2008). Mother-child attachment and social anxiety symptoms in middle childhood. Journal Of Applied Developmental Psychology, 29(5), 393-402. doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2008.06.002
Good post! I wouldn't have thought that kids with avoidant attachment would end up having normal levels of social anxiety and normal peer acceptance. I wonder if they would struggle more with dating and relationships? I agree with you that The environment the kids are raised in and how they view there caregivers will greatly impact how others view them.
Chris, I enjoyed reading your post! It caught my eye because I'm actually studying attachment style in my Personalities class. I liked how the study you found compared attachment style to anxiety. It was understandable how those with the anxious ambivalent style were more prone to anxiety when compared to the dismissive style. Those who are anxious ambivalent tend to over analyze and worry more about the relationships with their peers. The characteristics of this specific attachment style are similar to those of anxiety.
This was incredibly interesting to read, do you think that this research could be applied to individuals like school shooters? The only reason I ask is because whenever you read about these social interactions these individuals had with their peers it is always negative; they're shun by them, deliberately singled out and picked on, and very rarely have close relationships with one individual much less more than that. Maybe there might be a link between attachment style, social anxiety, and the risk that certain individuals with specific attachment styles accompanied with SAD may be more likely to enact these heinous crimes as opposed to an individual that strictly only has GAD.
I feel like this brings up the question of behavioral interventions for children with anxiety. If we can train children in social skills, for example, we might be able to cut off the cycle of rejection before it starts. If kids don't feel isolated by their peers or if they feel empowered that they *could* interact if they wanted, they might be less likely to develop a "world-is-against-me" worldview. That said, is there some form of moderating variable that is also included with socially anxious children, like parental interaction or household chaos? Is childhood SAD linked with psychotic breaks or paranoia as adults?
It is interesting to look at attachment styles and types of anxiety. We learn so much from our parents and the relationships we have with them. It is interesting to see how our relationship with our parents affects our relationship with others in the future. I wonder if this study looked into the kids who had greater anxiety also looked to see if their parents had anxiety and if parental anxiety was a factor considered in this study. I would think if the parent had anxiety or not, would have an affect on the child and their current & future relationships.
I thought this post was really interesting! I liked how you looked at attachment of kids to parents and found a study that talked about it. I can totally see why kids with the ambivalent attachment are more prone to anxiety when compared to avoidant children. It is interesting how the parents play such a role in the children's anxiety and I was wondering if parenting style would affect anything. Like maybe a parent that is more overprotective and hovering might make a child more anxious compared to laid back parent.
Chris- Interesting post! Attachments are crucial in development. The different styles can determine a lot by looking at the study. It was interesting to see how anxiety can determine personal relationships. People who had avoidant attachment style had less anxiety in social situations which is not what I would have guessed. I can see though how parents have almost all control on whether their child will have anxiety solely on their carving characteristics. Overall great post! Very interesting.
While reading about anxiety disorders, I wondered: what might a child with anxiety disorder look like in the classroom? One study interviewed twenty teachers to find out what behaviors they would consider to be “tipping points” for when it would be appropriate to report a student for anxiety. Identifying these abnormal behaviors for this study allow for a better understanding of how students with anxiety might behave in a classroom setting. Interestingly, the study noted that teacher referral is the most common way for children with anxiety to find treatment (Campbell & Hinchliffe, 2016). The teachers who were interviewed for the study identified six common behaviors that would determine whether or not they would refer a child for having possible anxiety. These educators said that alarming behaviors include any atypical behaviors (such as meltdowns), a lack of improvement in these abnormal behaviors, and a lack of response to any attempted strategies. The teachers also agreed that they might consider anxiety referral for a student when their anxiousness begins to affect their ability to learn. The final two behaviors that might indicate anxiety in a child, according to the study, include when a teacher needs to seek support from other teachers in order to aid the child and when the teacher receives information about the child’s at home behavior from a parent/guardian. Overall, the study showed that certain behaviors at school are seen as indicators of anxiety in a child. According to the teachers from this study, students with anxiety behave differently when compared to students without anxiety. Their students with anxiety struggle academically, have several different abnormal behaviors and require more attention and care from staff members. Campbell, M.A. & Hinchliffe, K.J. (2016) Tipping points: teachers’ reported reasons for referring primary school children for excessive anxiety. Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools, 26 (1) 84-99.
That's really interesting--and it says a lot about the teachers. There seems to be an implied "if I can't fix it, refer it up"--which can be good and bad, depending on what resources are available. I also am wondering how they might discuss this or make resources available to parents if the parents haven't brought it up first. While anxiety isn't as 'insulting' as say conduct disorder, I would like to know whether teachers and parents behave differently towards an anxious child as they have been demonstrated to do towards a child with ADHD.
I'm definitely interested in this article. I think it makes perfect sense for teachers to be active in referring the children. Even if they are wrong, at least they tried and the final decision could be left up to the psychologist. I will have to teach for two years to complete my degree and I think it would be very beneficial to watch for signs that maybe the parents won't notice at home. For example, if the student is really involved in discussion and makes good grades on quizzes and papers but fails a test, should we consider test anxiety? Also, if the student tends to stutter while speaking in front of the class we may need to pay close attention to other behaviors in order to rule out the possibility.
This is a really cool post because I would not have thought about kids with anxiety in the classroom. I understand how hard it is for them to function so I can totally see how their learning would be affected also. My mom is a teacher and I asked her if she has had to deal with any kids with anxiety. She told me how she has a lot of one on one time with them to make sure they are feeling comfortable and to help motivate them and keep them positive about things like homework and tests which could stress them out. Very interesting study!
I’ve always been interested in how child-rearing behaviors can affect a child later on in life. I nanny two children and their mother’s parenting style is different from what I plan on using later on in life. I was curious to see if negative attachment styles have a relationship with children who are anxious.
In Brown & Whiteside’s article, they were replicating a previous study and adding to the study. The study was looking to see if children who reported a negative attachment style would also report a higher level of worry than children who are securely attached. The study also looked at if negative, anxious child-rearing behaviors caused more worry in children. The study involved 64 children between the ages of 7-18, each child had an anxiety disorder. Some of the disorders present were OCD, GAD, social phobia, and separation anxiety disorder. They were diagnosed with an anxiety disorder using the DSM-IV-TR. The materials used to conduct the study were a modified version of the EMBU-C, Penn-State Worry Questionnaire for Children, and a series of questions asking about the children’s attachment styles. Results found that children who perceived parental rejection had a statistically significant relationship with being worried and perceived anxious rearing and overbearing were also a positive correlation, however not statistically significant. Only ambivalent children perceived more negative parental rearing behaviors than securely attached children.
Brown, A. M., & Whiteside, S. P. (2008). Relations among perceived parental rearing behaviors, attachment style, and worry in anxious children. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 22(2), 263-272.
Toria, Very interesting question. It isn't surprising that these children are anxious. Parenting and being there for a child even at an early age is everything. It has so many negative effects where parents neglect their children. What stinks being that you aren't their parent is that you can't really intervene, you can only support the child and let them know that you are there for them.
I have also nannied two children before and have had the exact same thought.To think that two or a single parent can effect a few large and many small attributes of your mental health, is beyond me. While I find this study interesting, how do they know that this anxiety isn't from a specific situation? Did they just study children with anxiety that experience this disorder from the nature of it or could it be from a traumatic event? Either way I do agree that the parent-child relationship if important.
After reading the chapter over anxiety disorder, I wanted to look at a study that focused on why children might develop anxiety disorder. I found an interesting study that looked at the correlation of anxiety disorder in children that had a stuttering speech problem. It makes sense that kids with a speech problem would have some problems with peers and in their life. That could potentially lead to developing anxiety. I also wondered if the kids with stuttering and anxiety, would still exhibit symptoms of anxiety as adults? I found a study that included both children and adults with stuttering issues.
The study used structured diagnostic interviews to determine the clinical presence of anxiety disorders. They took 75 kids with stuttering problems and 150 non stuttering as the control group. The results were that 32% of children that stuttered had anxiety disorder compared to the control group which only had 11% showed anxiety disorders. In the study they found the main type of anxiety in stuttering kids was social anxiety disorder at 24% as compared to the control which was only 5%. Generalized anxiety disorder was also significantly higher at 13% in stuttering kids and 2% in the control group. The results have a significant correlation between stuttering and anxiety disorder. Will these kids be more likely to still have anxiety as adults because of their stuttering? They measured a large number of adults who were seeking speech treatment therapy for stuttering and found that 22% of them had social anxiety disorder. Adults who were not in treatment therapy that stuttered were also measured and 50% of them had social anxiety disorder! According to the results for adult social anxiety, it looks like speech treatment therapy could be a major tool to help not develop social anxiety. There was a significant 28% difference between the two groups (ones in speech therapy vs not in therapy). To conclude kids and adults are at a significantly higher risk for developing anxiety especially social anxiety. Adults that sought speech therapy had significantly lower rates than those who did not. While the study didn't measure kids in speech therapy, these results seem indicate that they would also have a lower risk for anxiety if they did.
Iverach, L., Jones, M., McLellan, L. F., Lyneham, H. J., Menzies, R. G., Onslow, M., & Rapee, R. M. (2016). Prevalence of anxiety disorders among children who stutter. Journal Of Fluency Disorders, 4913-28. doi:10.1016/j.jfludis.2016.07.002
This is a really interesting topic to think about when considering anxiety disorders and I am sure it affects more people than we think. I am not surprised that the correlation is so high, however; it shows that speech therapy works! When you mentioned stuttering, stammering, and anxiety, I actually thought about King George VI. He had a really hard time speaking, especially in public. When he found out he would be King of England, he worked with a speech therapist and greatly improved. I think it would have been interesting to have research that showed his progress with his social anxiety and stutter. I am also curious to know if seeing a speech therapist for treatment is covered under insurance or if it is more difficult for people to get help.
This is actually a really good topic that I hadn't really thought about before. I think that stuttering would definitely cause anxiety disorders, especially SOC considering that speaking and having to talk to people would be a big challenge on them. Great thinking.
Very interesting, except I am wondering if it is possible that things are the other way around. Perhaps the anxiety is what is causing the stuttering instead of the stuttering problem causing anxiety? I would like to see an article that focuses more on that question since we know that stuttering is listed as a symptom. I am not surprised to see such a high correlation, thanks for sharing the actual numbers.
As I was reading the chapter, I started to wonder what relationships later on may look like for children who have anxiety. The study I found looked at men and women with anxiety and how the interacted with their preferred-sex in a few ways that included, speed-dating, videoing themselves introducing who they are, or a 40 min semi-structured interaction.
In the speed-dating study, they analyzed attachment anxiety and relationship initiation. They spent, typically, less than 5 min at each interaction. After all the interactions they were asked to tell researchers who they liked and if it was reciprocated they were matched. They also filled out attractiveness ratings. They found that for more anxious people, there was more negative outcomes. They also found that the more anxious a participant was, the lower they rated themselves on attractiveness.
The second study looked into how anxiety affected self-presentation. Participants were told that someone would be watching their video deciding if they wanted a face-to-face meeting after watching the introduction. They predicted participants with high attachment anxiety would be more disliked. They replicated their findings from study 1 about interpersonal appeal was lower among people with anxiety. They also found that people with anxiety had more social disengagement.
In the third study they looked at a 40 min face-to-face interaction that was semi structured. This longer study was important to see if the participant could "down regulate their state of social anxiety". They predicted that individuals with high attachment anxiety would have more negative social outcomes and lower interpersonal ratings. They found the same interpersonal ratings as being lower like in studies 1 and 2. They did not find the relationships between attachment anxiety and social engagement to be significant but they think this is due to a non-sufficient statistical power.
People with anxiety have lower interpersonal reports which in turn affects their relationship with others. If kids have anxiety and this same problem, they are learning from the beginning of how not to make relationships. It is important to continue to look into how to help people with anxiety that way we can better their life style and hope to teach kids with anxiety sooner how to cope.
McClure, M. J., & Lydon, J. E. (2014). Anxiety doesn’t become you: How attachment anxiety compromises relational opportunities. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 106(1), 89-111. doi:10.1037/a0034532
In chapter 11 on Anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders, there was a chart on page 377 that mentioned body dysmorphic disorder which is when a person is anxious about their physical appearance and a preoccupation with flaws. Although this was briefly mentioned, it got me thinking about children with body dysmorphic disorder and societal pressures that there are today. With the constant standards of today’s society, I am wondering if those influences affect the child’s perception of their appearance as well as triggering it later in life.
While looking for articles, I did not find anything on societal pressure triggering BDD again later on in life. However, the closest thing I could find to societal pressures is an article on adolescents (ages 9-16). In this study they talked to almost 4000 students and took their BMI, perceived self satisfaction, development stage, as well as who they believed their social influences were. After collecting all of the data they found girls were more likely to unsatisfied with how they look, even if they were in the norm in BMI and development-to-age. There was also a relationship between the girls who had low self esteem and those who said they felt pressure from friends and society to look a certain way. They found that around 9 or 10-years-old they are satisfied with how they look and no behaviors with trying to lose weight. Unlike the older group who were mostly dissatisfied and trying to lose weight due to peer pressure. They did find a correlation between the children with low body satisfaction and children diagnosed with BDD. The benefit of this study was the researchers took this information to the schools to help create programs to help children with or potentially preventing eating disorders and BDD.
Tremblay, L., & Lariviere, M. (2009). The influence of puberty onset, Body Mass Index, and pressure to be thin on disordered eating behaviors in children and adolescents [Abstract]. Eating Behaviors, 10(2), 75-83. doi:10.1016/j.eatbeh.2008.12.001
Leeann, You posed a really interesting question, I was sad to see that there wasn't any research on it. I can agree with the study you found though. Girls are constantly compared with social media, television, and even magazines. Its good that with the conclusion to the research they took it school. As young girls I find it extremely important to promote positive body image. When you are a kid you should be worried about staying up past bed time, and not how you look.
Leeann, I liked your question- it is one I thought of to myself while reading the chapter! I hope in the future there is research done on this. It is understandable that girls are the ones with low self esteem, as society always puts certain pressures on us. I like how they took this information to create programs to prevent BDD. I think a longitudinal study should be done on younger kids until the age they "develop" BDD- maybe we can find predetermining factors?
Isn't BDD when someone just is preoccupied with one part of their body? That might be the reason why there haven't not been any studies done on BDD and peer pressure. I feel like children now see an overall perfect image and aren't as preoccupied with just one part of their body, but their entire body. However, I agree that society does not portray an accurate image which might lead to more cases of BDD.
While reading chapter 11 the thing that stood out to me the most was the portion about children with specific phobias. I work in a dentist office and over the summer I witnessed something that I have never seen before. This little boy had a fear of laying back in a dental chair. The mom explained to the dental hygienist who was working with the boy that it wasn't just the leaning back in the dentist office, but leaning back in general. She told the hygienist that they had the same difficulty at the doctor and even bedtime was a hassle. This led me to the question; do children with specific phobias get aid from positive stimuli when faced with phobia?
A study was done in the Netherlands with 37 children ages 6-17 where one group of children had a 3 hour session of exposure therapy, another group was the attention training control, and the third groups was children exposure therapy with positive attention stimuli. The researchers found that the children in the group with positive attention stimuli handled their phobia a lot better than normal.
This makes me wanna conduct my own experiment in a way. If I'm there again when this boy comes in, I wonder if trying to bribe him with a balloon or toy or even talking to him about something he liked would help ease him into laying down for his visit. I know it probably wouldn't, but I feel like if the mom did this regularly he might not have such a harsh reaction to laying back. When he visited the dental hygienist just saw him while he was sitting up and this is not a proper way to complete an oral exam. It harder to tell if treatment may or may not be needed this way.
Waters A, Farrell L, Ollendick T, et al. Augmenting one-session treatment of children's specific phobias with attention training to positive stimuli. Behaviour Research And Therapy [serial online]. November 2014;62:107-119. Available from: PsycINFO, Ipswich, MA. Accessed October 5, 2016.
Regan, I found your personal experience relatable to myself in a way. I know, even now at almost 21 years old, that when I am leaning backs wards (in a chair, in a way that i cannot control) or when I am leaning forward in a way that feels like I'm falling I automatically feel a sense of fear. I'm not sure why, I think it just seems unnatural and gravity is not working in my favor (I feel like i will fall forward or backward). So I see where you're coming from suggesting positive attention stimuli for the little boy, but I wonder if it will only decrease the anxiety, not fully get rid of the anxiety of leaning back.
While reading chapter 11, I got curious about how many children with anxiety disorders also have autism spectrum disorders, and what is the most effective form of therapy for these children. I found an experiment that used Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to test if it worked best on children with ASD and comorbid anxiety disorders, and children with only anxiety disorders. The study results showed that CBT showed improvement in anxiety disorders and anxiety symptoms in children with ASD. Two years followup, the children with ASD were 61% free of their primary anxiety symptoms. The decrease of anxiety disorders were not differed between the children with or without ASD. Treatment showed to be slightly more effective in children without ASD.
Cbt for anxiety disorders in children with and without autism spectrum disorders. van Steensel, F. J. A.; Bögels, S. M. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol 83(3), Jun 2015, 512-523. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0039108
While researching my unanswered question, I found that a good amount of autistic children also had GAD or a different kind of anxiety. I find the comorbidity very interesting and you bring up and even better topic of interest, treatment not only for specific phobias but also for autistic children. I could only assume treatment for an autistic child with anxiety/ phobia would have to be specialized form of CBT.
Generalized anxiety disorder, although it is a generalized, it appears to not be specific enough in explanation, and especially when explaining comorbidity. While this is a generalized disorder, being explained as excessive and uncontrollable anxiety and worry about anything and everything, does this include smaller aspects of all types of anxiety? Is this disorder too general to be disorder? This can be answered through the one confounds of the DSM, and its lack of specificity in some areas or it could be better explain through research. Alfano (2012) researched children with pure generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) or comorbid and compared them with healthy children. The study was trying to determine if GAD was distinctive enough based upon impairment, to be considered a clinical disorder. While this study does not specifically reciprocate my initial question, it answers the main idea. Children aged 6-11 with GAD, comorbid GAD or healthy were compared by impairment, function, adaptation, and severity(Alfano 2012). It was concluded that GAD impairments were enough in comparison to the healthy children but comorbid GAD were more severe. Other results pointed out significant variables of gender, family functioning, and relationships to be very influential in impairments as well as course and outcome. This research provides evidence that GAD is distinct with impairments to be considered a clinical disorder, but needs to be more specific, especially with comorbid GAD. While GAD does exist to be general could it be apart of another specific anxiety or even clinical disorder? The research also highlights the risk factors, that can potentially be avoided and prevent further diagnosis of other psychiatric diagnosis.
Alfano, C.A. (2012) Are children with pure generalized anxiety disorder impaired? a comparison of comorbid and healthy children. Journal of clinical child & adolescent psychology, 4 (6), 739-742. doi: 10.1080/15374416.2012.715367
While reading the chapter over anxiety disorders, I became curious if children diagnosed with anxiety disorders had more frequent nightmares than children without anxiety. The reason I thought about this topic is because I have reoccurring nightmares pretty often, but I have not been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. I just wondered if those with anxiety are more prone to nightmares.
I found an article by Reynolds and Alfano where they assessed predictors and frequency of nightmares in children with generalized anxiety disorder and children with no diagnosis. They had both parents and children report the children's nightmare occurrence. They found that females are more prone to frequent nightmares than males. Also, parents of children with anxiety reported more nightmares than those without anxiety, as did the children. However, both children with anxiety and their parents overestimated the occurrence of nightmares, but different predictors affect children and parents ability to report the number of occurrences differently. I found it interesting that there is not much of a difference in occurring nightmares between kids with GAD and non-diagnosed kids, but I do see females having nightmares more often. Females perceive the world as a more dangerous place then men do, because of different societal influences on the female’s perspective and treatment.
Reynolds, K. C., & Alfano, C. A. (2016). Things that go bump in the night: Frequency and predictors of nightmares in anxious and nonanxious children. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 14(4), 442-456. doi:10.1080/15402002.2015.1017099
Lauren, I was immediately intrigued by your question as it had never occurred to me that anxiety and nightmares may be correlated. As I was reading about your research article I was surprised when you mentioned that females are more prone to frequent nightmares rather than males. I would have thought they would be equal if anything. But I appreciate your reasoning behind why females would have more frequent nightmares, we do seem to have more worries about the world and I can imagine those with anxiety disorders think even more so. This led me to wonder if the type of anxiety disorder has an affect on the frequency of nightmares? Are certain disorders more prone to nightmares or is it pretty normalized over all anxiety disorders?
Really good job on your post- it really interested me as you asked things I never thought of. I immediately became interested to see what research showed about nightmares. I was shocked that the parents and children overestimated the occurrence, which could be altered by different predictors. What predictors do you think could? I also liked your aspect on why females would have more nightmares- it gave a different perspective. Good job.
Wow! I absolutely love the basis of your post. I find this to be intriguing, especially since it really just makes sense that someone with anxiety would have nightmares more frequently than someone without anxiety. The constant worrying during idle time, right before going to bed for example, seems like it could definitely contribute to the frequency of nightmares. I also found it interesting that females are more prone to having nightmares, because from some research I have done, I learned that certain forms of anxiety can often be more prevalent in women. Thank you for sharing your post!
Lauren, I really liked your question! I hadn't thought to connect anxiety to nightmares but once you brought it up it got me curious. I thought it was interesting that girls had more nightmares than boys did. I thought about it more from the perspective that boys watch more violent and scary things which I feel would be more closely tied with nightmares. However, I can't say that I was surprised by people with anxiety having more nightmares. I feel like that makes sense with them being more worried about the negative. Good question!
When reading Chapter eleven, one thing that stuck out to me was that if a parent has a specific phobia, their child is more likely to develop the same phobia. This got me thinking about how influential our parents are in our development, and how their parental practices can shape many aspects of their children’s life experiences. I know a parent that has been diagnosed with anxiety, and I’ve seen how overprotective she is over her children. She would never let them do anything unless they asked her permission first. Even the silliest thing, like rolling around in the grass, would increase the mother’s anxiety. Seeing them grow up, I could see how her children would mimic her anxious behavior, especially about certain things she was commonly anxious about. So my question is, if the parents are anxious and overprotective over their children, can this play a major role in the child developing anxiety?
I found a study that examined the correlation between mother and father trait anxiety and overprotection. This participants included 80 children, about half with anxiety and the other half a control group, and the children’s parents. The results indicated that both maternal and paternal anxiety and overprotection influenced the children’s anxiety in their own unique way. On average, the father would act more overprotective, which proved to positively contribute to the child’s anxiety. If the mother had anxiety, that would also contribute to the child’s development of anxiety. In conclusion, both anxiety and overprotection shown in the parental figures had a strong correlation with the child developing anxiety.
Pereira, A. I., Barros, L., Mendonça, D., & Muris, P. (2014). The relationships among parental anxiety, parenting, and children’s anxiety: The mediating effects of children’s cognitive vulnerabilities. Journal Of Child And Family Studies, 23(2), 399-409. doi:10.1007/s10826-013-9767-5
Rachel, I was wondering the same question when I was reading the chapter too. I personally have GAD and so it got me wondering if maybe there was something growing up that contributed to that. Personally neither of my parents are diagnosed with anxiety so I know it isn't that but it does get me thinking about my kids. I thought it was interesting that there was a strong correlation with the two. I wonder if there is research done on other disorders (i.e. depression) that have a strong correlation as well.
Rachel, I was interested to learn that the father was more overprotective than the mother and that anxious and overprotecting parents influenced each of their kids anxiety in different ways. I wonder if there are certain things that all the parents were overprotective or anxious about that contributed more to the children having anxiety disorders. Also, I am curious if very strict parents can also contribute to anxiety disorders and if they have a higher impact than anxious and overprotective parents.
When reading the textbook chapter on Anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders, I began to wonder how often children with anxiety suffer from sleep issues? Sleep is such an essential part of our mental and physical health, especially during childhood development, that I became interested on how children with anxiety sleep.
ReplyDeleteThe study I found was on how well sleep could be improved after early childhood anxiety intervention. The study was conducted in 2016 and published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies. The study was conducted during a 12 week cognitive behavioral program in Arizona for anxious youth. The study measured their level of anxiety and the quality of sleep before and after the 12 week program. The researchers found that sleep did improve after the anxiety was treated, but it did not improve completely. This suggests that in addition to anxiety treatment the sleep concerns need to be addressed and treated directly. Clementi, M. A., Alfano, C. A., Holly, L. E., & Pina, A. A. (2016). Sleep-related outcomes following early intervention for childhood anxiety. Journal Of Child And Family Studies, doi:10.1007/s10826-016-0478-6
Hi Lauren,
DeleteI think you brought up a good issue that is associated with anxiety. Due to the anxiety, I would imagine that these children would have problems with sleeping. I found the conclusion to the experiment interesting since I would expect that since the anxiety was treated, sleep would imporve. This got me thinking about the way that the research was set up. I would've wanted to know more about the different reasons as to why these children said they felt anxiety, and the time period and seen if maybe that could've affected the outcome of this project (like being in school or having a summer break). I think that this could have been a factor too since we don't really know if these children were perhaps anxious for school-related stuff. Overall, good job in bringing up the sleeping issue with anxiety.
Hi Lauren,
DeleteI think it would be interesting to know what about anxiety causes trouble sleeping. Do you think it causes a sort of restlessness in the mind? Or do you think some children may just have anxiety about sleeping and perhaps not waking up on time, for example? I also think it would be interesting to know if sleep disorders are connected with anxiety. Perhaps anxiety is linked with other sleep disorders and that is why treating just the anxiety doesn't necessarily solve the problem. Great topic!
Lauren,
DeleteThis is a great post! Sleep is vital to our functioning and must be significant in younger children, since they need to be able to focus on constantly receiving information, not only in school but also in their environment. This makes me want to research various ways to cope with lack of sleep in anxious children or different solutions. Also, I am interested in specific methods or activities utilized in the cognitive behavioral program mentioned in the study. Overall, a very great post!
Erin Cameron
Good Post! I like the topic alot, I could definitely see how lack of sleep co occurring with anxiety could lead to negative things. I was curious how they were measuring the sleep though? Was it based off hours they were sleeping or looking at REM sleep. Children need lots sleep to develop normally I think this was a relevant and really cool topic.
DeleteSleep was a good thing to think about, and not something that came to my mind surprisingly. Personally struggling with GAD since a child, I know that this did affect me and I have had trouble sleeping even now as an adult with it. Considering that during sleep our brains take time to process the day and get ready for the next day, it's hard on the brain when anxiety takes over while you're trying to rest and relax.
DeleteThis is an incredibly interesting study you found, I'm assuming it wasn't a longitudinal study? The only reason I ask was you stated that even though the anxiety dissipated it didn't completely go away after treatment which meant that the children still had some problems sleeping, if I read everything correctly. So would this lead to more severe sleeping disorders like insomnia within these children? If so would the disorders have an earlier on set than other individuals with these sleep disorders?
DeleteLauren-
DeleteInteresting thought! I can only imagine if someone has an anxiety disorder how much sleep they would get. I would think close to none. With their thoughts racing constantly, I would think sleep would be very difficult to achieve. I wonder if the study you found looked at the differences with age and maybe across a timeline. Children need sleep to develop properly so I am sure that with them having anxiety they will not achieve a good development. Overall good topic! Very interesting.
It is interesting to see how anxiety affects sleep even after the anxiety has been treated. I, along with others, would have thought sleep would have improved completely after treating the anxiety. Sleep is such a vital part to our health and I'm curious if the lack of sleep due to previous anxiety affects other aspects of their life. I also agree with others about the concept being interesting to look at in a longitudinal study.
DeleteLauren,
DeleteI think it's really interesting that you chose to look at sleep in children with anxiety. I agree that children need a lot of sleep to function. Did the paper happen to say if children with anxiety issues get less sleep than children without anxiety?
That's a really interesting question! Do the children with anxiety issues sleep less or do they wake up more often than those without anxiety is what I was wondering while reading your comment!
DeleteI’ve always been curious about anxiety and how it plays a role in an evolutionary level. Anxiety has been around for a long time since cavemen tried to go out hunting for their food. The fight or flight response activates when we perceive danger, and a caveman would be able to run away or fight from a potential threat. With that being said, times have changed and those external threats have diminished. So my question is, why is anxiety still around and is there an evolutionary benefit to having it today?
ReplyDeleteThe article I read brought up an interesting point by stating that people with anxiety and depression have lower levels of mortality compared to someone who has depression only. I thought that this would be counter-intuitive since we associate 2 diseases with lower health outcomes. Anxiety is shown to affect an individual with increased vigilance, processing a threat more efficiently, and avoiding situations that might be harmful to us. While these are factors are associated with anxiety, they are different from Generalized Anxiety Disorder since they involved being alert for small things. I found it interesting that the article discussed that parents who are alone, minorities, and individuals from low socioeconomic status have higher anxiety due to a lack of social support, discrimination, and worrying about money. These make sense due to being factors that almost a lot of people can experience in their lives and lead to anxiety. I agree that worrying about these factors is important because it gives you a drive to better yourself so I think that this might be why anxiety is so important because it makes you work harder for your goals. I don’t think there was a direct answer when it comes to the question of whether or not anxiety is an evolutionary benefit, but it makes you think. Anxiety for the above factors makes sense because in a way you’re missing a resource like money or social support so technically it would make you anxious not having that and setting a goal to get it. I feel like the anxiety could potentially disappear when the resource is obtained, but there is still another question. Is there a benefit from anxiety and OCD/specific phobias? These are things that make people anxious so how are they evolutionary beneficial if no resource is being obtained?
Bateson, Melissa et al. (2011). Anxiety: An Evolutionary Approach. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 56 (12), 707-715.
Aaron,
DeleteInteresting points! To you last question, I believe that there is not a benefit to OCD that counters or evens out the potential harm that comes with the disorder. For specific phobias however, I think that there could definitely be a benefit but only if the person's phobia is about something that could cause them harm. For example, having a phobia of bears, while causing the person frequent distress, would make them more aware and could potentially cause them to remove themselves from a situation in which their life could be put in danger by a bear. However, having a specific phobia of balloons would probably not prevent such an occurrence.
Wow, Aaron your post was really interesting! Having anxiety is like having an overactive flight or fight response, a characteristic that would serve someone well in prehistoric times. Having an overactive fight or flight response as a normal person living in the 21st century would become maladaptive. It was interesting when you asked if anxiety no longer has an evolutionary benefit then why do we still have it? I think the same can be asked about our vestigal organs. Take the appendix for example, it no longer serves an anatomical purpose, in earlier times the appendix was used when our diet consisted mainly of vegetation. We still have anxiety, but it affects us unlike our appendix or other vestigal organs.
ReplyDeleteOne thing you hear a lot about in the context of anxiety disorders is how it affects interpersonal relationships, and it doesn't surprise me that that problem might extend to children as well. However, a study by Scharfstein, Alfano, Beidel, & Wong raises the question of whether or not this applies to anxiety disorders as a whole, or whether studying all anxiety disorders as one group has introduced error. They argue--and I agree--that it doesn't make sense for children with GAD especially to have fewer friends, since GAD tends to encourage competence and rule-abiding (and more importantly, discourages lack thereof). This study separates out children with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and GAD and studies them separately, drawing conclusions that children with SAD do have fewer positive social interactions and more social problems, but children with GAD on average don't. Instead, children with GAD have the same *quality* of interaction with their peers as healthy controls, but they simply have fewer friends--which, depending on your point of view, doesn't have to be a bad thing. That said, they do concede that it's possible children with GAD have fewer negative social interactions because they don't seek out social interaction as much--but you would think that would extend to individuals with SAD as well. Whatever the reason, this is a compelling argumeent for studying anxiety disorders separately, because it changes the results. More importantly, it seems that it might not be the number of friendships that is relevant to a child but their quality. I'd like to see further data on how these same children rate life satisfaction and perceived social standing as well.
ReplyDeleteScharfstein, L., Alfano, C., Beidel, D., & Wong, N. (2011). Children with generalized anxiety disorder do not have peer problems, just fewer friends. Child Psychiatry And Human Development, 42(6), 712-723. doi:10.1007/s10578-011-0245-2
Hi Elyssa,
DeleteI'm impressed with your discussion! In fact, I think that you made a great distinction and agree that it's not a bad thing that children with GAD having fewer friends is a bad thing! I think that it's a positive thing that they have fewer friends since they have a higher quality and these children could trust them to a higher extent. Also, while these children might have a few friends, it may be the case that these friends are the ones that completely know everything about the child with GAD and may be more understanding people, which is why I agree that I would like to see their life satisfaction (at a later age of course) and see how much peer support they would answer on a questionnaire. I would also like to see how much parent support they have and see how it compares to the different levels of GAD among these children.
Overall, good discussion :)
Elyssa,
DeleteI think your topic brings forth a great point, that is some studies of disorders certainly need to be readdressed. GAD and SAD are two very different disorders that cause very distinct outlooks on life from the individuals so I am surprised there are not more studies looking into relationships separately. I definitely agree with you that anxiety disorders should not be lumped into one generalizable group. This study you found was interesting. I think studying anxiety in children is a great way to look at relationships since children are exposed to social interaction situations nearly every day. I would like to know more about the quality over quantity solution. I think it would be easy to mistake quantity as lack of anxiety in social situations when comfort is what should be studied. I loved this topic.
Elyssa,
DeleteI thoroughly enjoyed reading your post! I love how you differentiated between the two anxiety disorders, because it is so significant to look at those unique outcomes, especially in research. Specifically, it was interesting to me how the study differentiated between quantity and quality of relationships. I am curious as to how they measured "quality" of relationships in the study. Overall, this post was very intriguing!
Erin Cameron
Elyssa,
DeleteYour post was very interesting! One aspect of studying disorders in children that I find compelling are the affects the disorders have on children's lives. Social interactions are a very important part of a child's every day life, and can have a huge impact on their development.All of the disorders we've studied in class thus far have shown to have a negative impact on a child's social life. This is why I found your post particularly interesting when it stated that children with GAD have shown to have quality relationships with their peers. The study from your post did mention that a child with GAD might have less negative social interactions because they partake in less social interactions. However, I wonder if another reason behind these results might be because children with general anxiety might pay closer attention to their interactions with their peers. Perhaps their anxiety causes them to worry about their relationships more than a child without anxiety and thus put an extra effort into them? Then again, I could be wrong.
Hi Elyssa, I thought your post was very interesting. I agree with your point that children with GAD might not simply seek out as many social interactions as children without GAD, thus decreasing the likelihood of having a negative social interaction. What I am interested in is whether or not those with GAD would avoid negative social interactions with their peers and friends as much as possible. Those with anxiety typically do not handle the boat rocking very well. It would make sense to me if they tried to be the people pleaser or avoid conflict in an interpersonal setting. It also interests me if those with fewer friends and with GAD maintain those friendships over a long period of time.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading chapter eleven, the topic of social anxiety disorder or social phobia was brought up. I wanted to know a little more on the relationship of attachment style and social anxiety and how they intertwine with each other. A two-year study done by Brumari and Kerns had a few interesting findings. Children with ambivalent attachment, which is the anxious\sometimes attached or distant style, have a greater risk for social anxiety symptoms. This could be because they are typically the most distressed of the styles and seek social opportunities the least. Compared to ambivalent style, avoidant children have been found in some studies to have less anxiety in social situations that do not require intimacy. This finding could possibly be from internalizing less problems that lead to stress for those with avoidant. Ultimately peer evaluation was negative the most for the ambivalent style children. From my perspective, the attachment the children receive from their caregivers contributes greatly to how others perceive them, whether positive or negative. There seems to be characteristics in individuals with avoidant style that can make them more socially accepted with their peers and combats the fears that social anxiety disorder embodies.
ReplyDeleteBrumariu, L. E., & Kerns, K. A. (2008). Mother-child attachment and social anxiety symptoms in middle childhood. Journal Of Applied Developmental Psychology, 29(5), 393-402. doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2008.06.002
Good post! I wouldn't have thought that kids with avoidant attachment would end up having normal levels of social anxiety and normal peer acceptance. I wonder if they would struggle more with dating and relationships? I agree with you that The environment the kids are raised in and how they view there caregivers will greatly impact how others view them.
DeleteChris,
DeleteI enjoyed reading your post! It caught my eye because I'm actually studying attachment style in my Personalities class. I liked how the study you found compared attachment style to anxiety. It was understandable how those with the anxious ambivalent style were more prone to anxiety when compared to the dismissive style. Those who are anxious ambivalent tend to over analyze and worry more about the relationships with their peers. The characteristics of this specific attachment style are similar to those of anxiety.
This was incredibly interesting to read, do you think that this research could be applied to individuals like school shooters? The only reason I ask is because whenever you read about these social interactions these individuals had with their peers it is always negative; they're shun by them, deliberately singled out and picked on, and very rarely have close relationships with one individual much less more than that. Maybe there might be a link between attachment style, social anxiety, and the risk that certain individuals with specific attachment styles accompanied with SAD may be more likely to enact these heinous crimes as opposed to an individual that strictly only has GAD.
DeleteHi, Chris--
DeleteI feel like this brings up the question of behavioral interventions for children with anxiety. If we can train children in social skills, for example, we might be able to cut off the cycle of rejection before it starts. If kids don't feel isolated by their peers or if they feel empowered that they *could* interact if they wanted, they might be less likely to develop a "world-is-against-me" worldview. That said, is there some form of moderating variable that is also included with socially anxious children, like parental interaction or household chaos? Is childhood SAD linked with psychotic breaks or paranoia as adults?
It is interesting to look at attachment styles and types of anxiety. We learn so much from our parents and the relationships we have with them. It is interesting to see how our relationship with our parents affects our relationship with others in the future. I wonder if this study looked into the kids who had greater anxiety also looked to see if their parents had anxiety and if parental anxiety was a factor considered in this study. I would think if the parent had anxiety or not, would have an affect on the child and their current & future relationships.
DeleteI thought this post was really interesting! I liked how you looked at attachment of kids to parents and found a study that talked about it. I can totally see why kids with the ambivalent attachment are more prone to anxiety when compared to avoidant children. It is interesting how the parents play such a role in the children's anxiety and I was wondering if parenting style would affect anything. Like maybe a parent that is more overprotective and hovering might make a child more anxious compared to laid back parent.
DeleteDesiree Copeland
Chris-
DeleteInteresting post! Attachments are crucial in development. The different styles can determine a lot by looking at the study. It was interesting to see how anxiety can determine personal relationships. People who had avoidant attachment style had less anxiety in social situations which is not what I would have guessed. I can see though how parents have almost all control on whether their child will have anxiety solely on their carving characteristics. Overall great post! Very interesting.
While reading about anxiety disorders, I wondered: what might a child with anxiety disorder look like in the classroom? One study interviewed twenty teachers to find out what behaviors they would consider to be “tipping points” for when it would be appropriate to report a student for anxiety. Identifying these abnormal behaviors for this study allow for a better understanding of how students with anxiety might behave in a classroom setting. Interestingly, the study noted that teacher referral is the most common way for children with anxiety to find treatment (Campbell & Hinchliffe, 2016).
ReplyDeleteThe teachers who were interviewed for the study identified six common behaviors that would determine whether or not they would refer a child for having possible anxiety. These educators said that alarming behaviors include any atypical behaviors (such as meltdowns), a lack of improvement in these abnormal behaviors, and a lack of response to any attempted strategies. The teachers also agreed that they might consider anxiety referral for a student when their anxiousness begins to affect their ability to learn. The final two behaviors that might indicate anxiety in a child, according to the study, include when a teacher needs to seek support from other teachers in order to aid the child and when the teacher receives information about the child’s at home behavior from a parent/guardian. Overall, the study showed that certain behaviors at school are seen as indicators of anxiety in a child.
According to the teachers from this study, students with anxiety behave differently when compared to students without anxiety. Their students with anxiety struggle academically, have several different abnormal behaviors and require more attention and care from staff members.
Campbell, M.A. & Hinchliffe, K.J. (2016) Tipping points: teachers’ reported reasons for referring primary school children for excessive anxiety. Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools, 26 (1) 84-99.
Hey, Lacy,
DeleteThat's really interesting--and it says a lot about the teachers. There seems to be an implied "if I can't fix it, refer it up"--which can be good and bad, depending on what resources are available. I also am wondering how they might discuss this or make resources available to parents if the parents haven't brought it up first. While anxiety isn't as 'insulting' as say conduct disorder, I would like to know whether teachers and parents behave differently towards an anxious child as they have been demonstrated to do towards a child with ADHD.
I'm definitely interested in this article. I think it makes perfect sense for teachers to be active in referring the children. Even if they are wrong, at least they tried and the final decision could be left up to the psychologist. I will have to teach for two years to complete my degree and I think it would be very beneficial to watch for signs that maybe the parents won't notice at home. For example, if the student is really involved in discussion and makes good grades on quizzes and papers but fails a test, should we consider test anxiety? Also, if the student tends to stutter while speaking in front of the class we may need to pay close attention to other behaviors in order to rule out the possibility.
DeleteThis is a really cool post because I would not have thought about kids with anxiety in the classroom. I understand how hard it is for them to function so I can totally see how their learning would be affected also. My mom is a teacher and I asked her if she has had to deal with any kids with anxiety. She told me how she has a lot of one on one time with them to make sure they are feeling comfortable and to help motivate them and keep them positive about things like homework and tests which could stress them out. Very interesting study!
DeleteDesiree Copeland
I’ve always been interested in how child-rearing behaviors can affect a child later on in life. I nanny two children and their mother’s parenting style is different from what I plan on using later on in life. I was curious to see if negative attachment styles have a relationship with children who are anxious.
ReplyDeleteIn Brown & Whiteside’s article, they were replicating a previous study and adding to the study. The study was looking to see if children who reported a negative attachment style would also report a higher level of worry than children who are securely attached. The study also looked at if negative, anxious child-rearing behaviors caused more worry in children. The study involved 64 children between the ages of 7-18, each child had an anxiety disorder. Some of the disorders present were OCD, GAD, social phobia, and separation anxiety disorder. They were diagnosed with an anxiety disorder using the DSM-IV-TR. The materials used to conduct the study were a modified version of the EMBU-C, Penn-State Worry Questionnaire for Children, and a series of questions asking about the children’s attachment styles. Results found that children who perceived parental rejection had a statistically significant relationship with being worried and perceived anxious rearing and overbearing were also a positive correlation, however not statistically significant. Only ambivalent children perceived more negative parental rearing behaviors than securely attached children.
Brown, A. M., & Whiteside, S. P. (2008). Relations among perceived parental rearing behaviors, attachment style, and worry in anxious children. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 22(2), 263-272.
Toria,
DeleteVery interesting question. It isn't surprising that these children are anxious. Parenting and being there for a child even at an early age is everything. It has so many negative effects where parents neglect their children. What stinks being that you aren't their parent is that you can't really intervene, you can only support the child and let them know that you are there for them.
Toria,
DeleteI have also nannied two children before and have had the exact same thought.To think that two or a single parent can effect a few large and many small attributes of your mental health, is beyond me. While I find this study interesting, how do they know that this anxiety isn't from a specific situation? Did they just study children with anxiety that experience this disorder from the nature of it or could it be from a traumatic event? Either way I do agree that the parent-child relationship if important.
After reading the chapter over anxiety disorder, I wanted to look at a study that focused on why children might develop anxiety disorder. I found an interesting study that looked at the correlation of anxiety disorder in children that had a stuttering speech problem. It makes sense that kids with a speech problem would have some problems with peers and in their life. That could potentially lead to developing anxiety. I also wondered if the kids with stuttering and anxiety, would still exhibit symptoms of anxiety as adults? I found a study that included both children and adults with stuttering issues.
ReplyDeleteThe study used structured diagnostic interviews to determine the clinical presence of anxiety disorders. They took 75 kids with stuttering problems and 150 non stuttering as the control group. The results were that 32% of children that stuttered had anxiety disorder compared to the control group which only had 11% showed anxiety disorders. In the study they found the main type of anxiety in stuttering kids was social anxiety disorder at 24% as compared to the control which was only 5%. Generalized anxiety disorder was also significantly higher at 13% in stuttering kids and 2% in the control group. The results have a significant correlation between stuttering and anxiety disorder. Will these kids be more likely to still have anxiety as adults because of their stuttering?
They measured a large number of adults who were seeking speech treatment therapy for stuttering and found that 22% of them had social anxiety disorder. Adults who were not in treatment therapy that stuttered were also measured and 50% of them had social anxiety disorder!
According to the results for adult social anxiety, it looks like speech treatment therapy could be a major tool to help not develop social anxiety. There was a significant 28% difference between the two groups (ones in speech therapy vs not in therapy). To conclude kids and adults are at a significantly higher risk for developing anxiety especially social anxiety. Adults that sought speech therapy had significantly lower rates than those who did not. While the study didn't measure kids in speech therapy, these results seem indicate that they would also have a lower risk for anxiety if they did.
Iverach, L., Jones, M., McLellan, L. F., Lyneham, H. J., Menzies, R. G., Onslow, M., & Rapee, R. M. (2016). Prevalence of anxiety disorders among children who stutter. Journal Of Fluency Disorders, 4913-28. doi:10.1016/j.jfludis.2016.07.002
This is a really interesting topic to think about when considering anxiety disorders and I am sure it affects more people than we think. I am not surprised that the correlation is so high, however; it shows that speech therapy works! When you mentioned stuttering, stammering, and anxiety, I actually thought about King George VI. He had a really hard time speaking, especially in public. When he found out he would be King of England, he worked with a speech therapist and greatly improved. I think it would have been interesting to have research that showed his progress with his social anxiety and stutter. I am also curious to know if seeing a speech therapist for treatment is covered under insurance or if it is more difficult for people to get help.
DeleteThis is actually a really good topic that I hadn't really thought about before. I think that stuttering would definitely cause anxiety disorders, especially SOC considering that speaking and having to talk to people would be a big challenge on them. Great thinking.
DeleteVery interesting, except I am wondering if it is possible that things are the other way around. Perhaps the anxiety is what is causing the stuttering instead of the stuttering problem causing anxiety? I would like to see an article that focuses more on that question since we know that stuttering is listed as a symptom. I am not surprised to see such a high correlation, thanks for sharing the actual numbers.
DeleteAs I was reading the chapter, I started to wonder what relationships later on may look like for children who have anxiety. The study I found looked at men and women with anxiety and how the interacted with their preferred-sex in a few ways that included, speed-dating, videoing themselves introducing who they are, or a 40 min semi-structured interaction.
ReplyDeleteIn the speed-dating study, they analyzed attachment anxiety and relationship initiation. They spent, typically, less than 5 min at each interaction. After all the interactions they were asked to tell researchers who they liked and if it was reciprocated they were matched. They also filled out attractiveness ratings. They found that for more anxious people, there was more negative outcomes. They also found that the more anxious a participant was, the lower they rated themselves on attractiveness.
The second study looked into how anxiety affected self-presentation. Participants were told that someone would be watching their video deciding if they wanted a face-to-face meeting after watching the introduction. They predicted participants with high attachment anxiety would be more disliked. They replicated their findings from study 1 about interpersonal appeal was lower among people with anxiety. They also found that people with anxiety had more social disengagement.
In the third study they looked at a 40 min face-to-face interaction that was semi structured. This longer study was important to see if the participant could "down regulate their state of social anxiety". They predicted that individuals with high attachment anxiety would have more negative social outcomes and lower interpersonal ratings. They found the same interpersonal ratings as being lower like in studies 1 and 2. They did not find the relationships between attachment anxiety and social engagement to be significant but they think this is due to a non-sufficient statistical power.
People with anxiety have lower interpersonal reports which in turn affects their relationship with others. If kids have anxiety and this same problem, they are learning from the beginning of how not to make relationships. It is important to continue to look into how to help people with anxiety that way we can better their life style and hope to teach kids with anxiety sooner how to cope.
McClure, M. J., & Lydon, J. E. (2014). Anxiety doesn’t become you: How attachment anxiety compromises relational opportunities. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 106(1), 89-111. doi:10.1037/a0034532
In chapter 11 on Anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders, there was a chart on page 377 that mentioned body dysmorphic disorder which is when a person is anxious about their physical appearance and a preoccupation with flaws. Although this was briefly mentioned, it got me thinking about children with body dysmorphic disorder and societal pressures that there are today. With the constant standards of today’s society, I am wondering if those influences affect the child’s perception of their appearance as well as triggering it later in life.
ReplyDeleteWhile looking for articles, I did not find anything on societal pressure triggering BDD again later on in life. However, the closest thing I could find to societal pressures is an article on adolescents (ages 9-16). In this study they talked to almost 4000 students and took their BMI, perceived self satisfaction, development stage, as well as who they believed their social influences were. After collecting all of the data they found girls were more likely to unsatisfied with how they look, even if they were in the norm in BMI and development-to-age. There was also a relationship between the girls who had low self esteem and those who said they felt pressure from friends and society to look a certain way. They found that around 9 or 10-years-old they are satisfied with how they look and no behaviors with trying to lose weight. Unlike the older group who were mostly dissatisfied and trying to lose weight due to peer pressure. They did find a correlation between the children with low body satisfaction and children diagnosed with BDD. The benefit of this study was the researchers took this information to the schools to help create programs to help children with or potentially preventing eating disorders and BDD.
Tremblay, L., & Lariviere, M. (2009). The influence of puberty onset, Body Mass Index, and pressure to be thin on disordered eating behaviors in children and adolescents [Abstract]. Eating Behaviors, 10(2), 75-83. doi:10.1016/j.eatbeh.2008.12.001
Leeann,
DeleteYou posed a really interesting question, I was sad to see that there wasn't any research on it. I can agree with the study you found though. Girls are constantly compared with social media, television, and even magazines. Its good that with the conclusion to the research they took it school. As young girls I find it extremely important to promote positive body image. When you are a kid you should be worried about staying up past bed time, and not how you look.
Leeann,
DeleteI liked your question- it is one I thought of to myself while reading the chapter! I hope in the future there is research done on this. It is understandable that girls are the ones with low self esteem, as society always puts certain pressures on us. I like how they took this information to create programs to prevent BDD. I think a longitudinal study should be done on younger kids until the age they "develop" BDD- maybe we can find predetermining factors?
Leeann,
DeleteIsn't BDD when someone just is preoccupied with one part of their body? That might be the reason why there haven't not been any studies done on BDD and peer pressure. I feel like children now see an overall perfect image and aren't as preoccupied with just one part of their body, but their entire body. However, I agree that society does not portray an accurate image which might lead to more cases of BDD.
While reading chapter 11 the thing that stood out to me the most was the portion about children with specific phobias. I work in a dentist office and over the summer I witnessed something that I have never seen before. This little boy had a fear of laying back in a dental chair. The mom explained to the dental hygienist who was working with the boy that it wasn't just the leaning back in the dentist office, but leaning back in general. She told the hygienist that they had the same difficulty at the doctor and even bedtime was a hassle. This led me to the question; do children with specific phobias get aid from positive stimuli when faced with phobia?
ReplyDeleteA study was done in the Netherlands with 37 children ages 6-17 where one group of children had a 3 hour session of exposure therapy, another group was the attention training control, and the third groups was children exposure therapy with positive attention stimuli. The researchers found that the children in the group with positive attention stimuli handled their phobia a lot better than normal.
This makes me wanna conduct my own experiment in a way. If I'm there again when this boy comes in, I wonder if trying to bribe him with a balloon or toy or even talking to him about something he liked would help ease him into laying down for his visit. I know it probably wouldn't, but I feel like if the mom did this regularly he might not have such a harsh reaction to laying back. When he visited the dental hygienist just saw him while he was sitting up and this is not a proper way to complete an oral exam. It harder to tell if treatment may or may not be needed this way.
Waters A, Farrell L, Ollendick T, et al. Augmenting one-session treatment of children's specific phobias with attention training to positive stimuli. Behaviour Research And Therapy [serial online]. November 2014;62:107-119. Available from: PsycINFO, Ipswich, MA. Accessed October 5, 2016.
Regan,
DeleteI found your personal experience relatable to myself in a way. I know, even now at almost 21 years old, that when I am leaning backs wards (in a chair, in a way that i cannot control) or when I am leaning forward in a way that feels like I'm falling I automatically feel a sense of fear. I'm not sure why, I think it just seems unnatural and gravity is not working in my favor (I feel like i will fall forward or backward). So I see where you're coming from suggesting positive attention stimuli for the little boy, but I wonder if it will only decrease the anxiety, not fully get rid of the anxiety of leaning back.
While reading chapter 11, I got curious about how many children with anxiety disorders also have autism spectrum disorders, and what is the most effective form of therapy for these children.
ReplyDeleteI found an experiment that used Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to test if it worked best on children with ASD and comorbid anxiety disorders, and children with only anxiety disorders. The study results showed that CBT showed improvement in anxiety disorders and anxiety symptoms in children with ASD. Two years followup, the children with ASD were 61% free of their primary anxiety symptoms. The decrease of anxiety disorders were not differed between the children with or without ASD. Treatment showed to be slightly more effective in children without ASD.
Cbt for anxiety disorders in children with and without autism spectrum disorders.
van Steensel, F. J. A.; Bögels, S. M.
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol 83(3), Jun 2015, 512-523. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0039108
Haley,
DeleteWhile researching my unanswered question, I found that a good amount of autistic children also had GAD or a different kind of anxiety. I find the comorbidity very interesting and you bring up and even better topic of interest, treatment not only for specific phobias but also for autistic children. I could only assume treatment for an autistic child with anxiety/ phobia would have to be specialized form of CBT.
Generalized anxiety disorder, although it is a generalized, it appears to not be specific enough in explanation, and especially when explaining comorbidity. While this is a generalized disorder, being explained as excessive and uncontrollable anxiety and worry about anything and everything, does this include smaller aspects of all types of anxiety? Is this disorder too general to be disorder? This can be answered through the one confounds of the DSM, and its lack of specificity in some areas or it could be better explain through research. Alfano (2012) researched children with pure generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) or comorbid and compared them with healthy children. The study was trying to determine if GAD was distinctive enough based upon impairment, to be considered a clinical disorder. While this study does not specifically reciprocate my initial question, it answers the main idea. Children aged 6-11 with GAD, comorbid GAD or healthy were compared by impairment, function, adaptation, and severity(Alfano 2012). It was concluded that GAD impairments were enough in comparison to the healthy children but comorbid GAD were more severe. Other results pointed out significant variables of gender, family functioning, and relationships to be very influential in impairments as well as course and outcome. This research provides evidence that GAD is distinct with impairments to be considered a clinical disorder, but needs to be more specific, especially with comorbid GAD. While GAD does exist to be general could it be apart of another specific anxiety or even clinical disorder? The research also highlights the risk factors, that can potentially be avoided and prevent further diagnosis of other psychiatric diagnosis.
ReplyDeleteAlfano, C.A. (2012) Are children with pure generalized anxiety disorder impaired? a comparison of comorbid and healthy children. Journal of clinical child & adolescent psychology, 4 (6), 739-742. doi: 10.1080/15374416.2012.715367
While reading the chapter over anxiety disorders, I became curious if children diagnosed with anxiety disorders had more frequent nightmares than children without anxiety. The reason I thought about this topic is because I have reoccurring nightmares pretty often, but I have not been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. I just wondered if those with anxiety are more prone to nightmares.
ReplyDeleteI found an article by Reynolds and Alfano where they assessed predictors and frequency of nightmares in children with generalized anxiety disorder and children with no diagnosis. They had both parents and children report the children's nightmare occurrence. They found that females are more prone to frequent nightmares than males. Also, parents of children with anxiety reported more nightmares than those without anxiety, as did the children. However, both children with anxiety and their parents overestimated the occurrence of nightmares, but different predictors affect children and parents ability to report the number of occurrences differently.
I found it interesting that there is not much of a difference in occurring nightmares between kids with GAD and non-diagnosed kids, but I do see females having nightmares more often. Females perceive the world as a more dangerous place then men do, because of different societal influences on the female’s perspective and treatment.
Reynolds, K. C., & Alfano, C. A. (2016). Things that go bump in the night: Frequency and predictors of nightmares in anxious and nonanxious children. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 14(4), 442-456. doi:10.1080/15402002.2015.1017099
Lauren,
DeleteI was immediately intrigued by your question as it had never occurred to me that anxiety and nightmares may be correlated. As I was reading about your research article I was surprised when you mentioned that females are more prone to frequent nightmares rather than males. I would have thought they would be equal if anything. But I appreciate your reasoning behind why females would have more frequent nightmares, we do seem to have more worries about the world and I can imagine those with anxiety disorders think even more so. This led me to wonder if the type of anxiety disorder has an affect on the frequency of nightmares? Are certain disorders more prone to nightmares or is it pretty normalized over all anxiety disorders?
Lauren,
DeleteReally good job on your post- it really interested me as you asked things I never thought of. I immediately became interested to see what research showed about nightmares. I was shocked that the parents and children overestimated the occurrence, which could be altered by different predictors. What predictors do you think could? I also liked your aspect on why females would have more nightmares- it gave a different perspective.
Good job.
Lauren,
DeleteWow! I absolutely love the basis of your post. I find this to be intriguing, especially since it really just makes sense that someone with anxiety would have nightmares more frequently than someone without anxiety. The constant worrying during idle time, right before going to bed for example, seems like it could definitely contribute to the frequency of nightmares. I also found it interesting that females are more prone to having nightmares, because from some research I have done, I learned that certain forms of anxiety can often be more prevalent in women. Thank you for sharing your post!
Lauren,
DeleteI really liked your question! I hadn't thought to connect anxiety to nightmares but once you brought it up it got me curious. I thought it was interesting that girls had more nightmares than boys did. I thought about it more from the perspective that boys watch more violent and scary things which I feel would be more closely tied with nightmares. However, I can't say that I was surprised by people with anxiety having more nightmares. I feel like that makes sense with them being more worried about the negative. Good question!
When reading Chapter eleven, one thing that stuck out to me was that if a parent has a specific phobia, their child is more likely to develop the same phobia. This got me thinking about how influential our parents are in our development, and how their parental practices can shape many aspects of their children’s life experiences. I know a parent that has been diagnosed with anxiety, and I’ve seen how overprotective she is over her children. She would never let them do anything unless they asked her permission first. Even the silliest thing, like rolling around in the grass, would increase the mother’s anxiety. Seeing them grow up, I could see how her children would mimic her anxious behavior, especially about certain things she was commonly anxious about. So my question is, if the parents are anxious and overprotective over their children, can this play a major role in the child developing anxiety?
ReplyDeleteI found a study that examined the correlation between mother and father trait anxiety and overprotection. This participants included 80 children, about half with anxiety and the other half a control group, and the children’s parents. The results indicated that both maternal and paternal anxiety and overprotection influenced the children’s anxiety in their own unique way. On average, the father would act more overprotective, which proved to positively contribute to the child’s anxiety. If the mother had anxiety, that would also contribute to the child’s development of anxiety. In conclusion, both anxiety and overprotection shown in the parental figures had a strong correlation with the child developing anxiety.
Pereira, A. I., Barros, L., Mendonça, D., & Muris, P. (2014). The relationships among parental anxiety, parenting, and children’s anxiety: The mediating effects of children’s cognitive vulnerabilities. Journal Of Child And Family Studies, 23(2), 399-409. doi:10.1007/s10826-013-9767-5
Rachel,
DeleteI was wondering the same question when I was reading the chapter too. I personally have GAD and so it got me wondering if maybe there was something growing up that contributed to that. Personally neither of my parents are diagnosed with anxiety so I know it isn't that but it does get me thinking about my kids. I thought it was interesting that there was a strong correlation with the two. I wonder if there is research done on other disorders (i.e. depression) that have a strong correlation as well.
Rachel,
DeleteI was interested to learn that the father was more overprotective than the mother and that anxious and overprotecting parents influenced each of their kids anxiety in different ways. I wonder if there are certain things that all the parents were overprotective or anxious about that contributed more to the children having anxiety disorders. Also, I am curious if very strict parents can also contribute to anxiety disorders and if they have a higher impact than anxious and overprotective parents.
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