Childhood Anxiety Psychology

Most of this chapter is explanatory in nature and there is no controversial information related to anxiety disorders in children. Mash & Wolfe (2012) define anxiety as a strong negative emotion, but note that some anxiety is an adaptive response to genuine environmental threats. Anxiety becomes problematic when it arises for no reason or out of proportion to the perceived threat. Children who experience excessive levels anxiety can develop psychological problems like anxiety disorders, and it is therefore important o address children's anxiety as early as possible.

It is researched that anxiety begins to transform itself during the early stages of infancy and childhood, in which children develop attachments- and these attachments can be a prelude to possible future anxiety disorders. It is reported that there is a 40% chance that anxiety disorders can be passed down generations. Also, it is proven that low levels of serotonin in the brain are the cause for anxiety

The purpose of this article is to examine associations between characteristics of the mother–child relationship and offspring psychopathology. It is also agreeing with previous studies which state that parental control was found to be more strongly associated with offspring anxiety than parental rejection, parental rejection was shown to be more strongly associated with offspring depression than parental control. Other studies have found that adolescent anxiety symptoms were associated with lower maternal autonomy support, and anxious adolescents and their mothers perceive lower levels of child autonomy within the mother–child relationship. Consistently, mothers of anxious children were less warm and autonomy granting during conversational tasks and more intrusively involved during cognitive tasks than control

Thesis Statement: Early Anxiety is stemmed from many factors, however the main cause of anxiety in adolescents is directly related to parenting and/or family influences.

The Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale is one of the most widely used self-report measures of anxiety in youth. It is used to diagnose overall anxiety in youth and also to characterize the nature of that anxiety. The purpose of revising the Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (CMAS) was to shorten the administration time, increase the clarity of the items, and reduce the reading level. Reliability and validity data appear to be adequate, though the internal consistency estimates for some of the subscales of the RCMAS are rather low. While self-report measures, such as the RCMAS, appear to be good at demonstrating convergent validity, they often struggle with demonstrating discriminant validity. Further reliability and validity data is analyzed, and strengths and weaknesses of the measure are discussed.

As explained by Bowlby (2008), the quality of the attachment relationship between a parent and child is a crucial determinant in development. The quality of parental sensitivity in repeated interactions and daily occurrences permits the child to set expectations regarding the behavior of their primary caregiver in times of duress (Kerns & Brumariu, 2014). Consequently, a child’s social and emotional development is ultimately affected by the type of parent-child attachment experienced early in life. The research revealed that secure attachment formed between the parent and child predicts ideal behavior (Kochanska & Kim, 2013). However, the formation of insecure attachment styles significantly increase potential risks for challenging behavior regarding social and emotional

The problem is not anxiety itself, it is not being able to cope with the anxieties of human life. This can be a challenge for young kids due to the fact

Anxiety refers to a combination of emotions that include fear, apprehension, and worry. Since anxiety entails an expectation of uncertain threat, it plays an obvious role in the experience of parents when confronted with the life-threatening diagnosis of cancer in their child. The feeling of uncertainty in parents is a manifestation of anxiety which stems from fear of possible disease consequences like relapse or death (Yeh, 2002). Three studies have shown a relationship between pediatric cancer and anxiety in parents as a result (Moore & Mosher, 1997; Yeh, 2002; Santacroce, 2002). These studies have similar findings in that it was found that frequency of anxiety occurs more often around the time of the diagnosis of cancer and tends to decrease

Anxiety is a common reaction in the human body. So becoming a little scared when watching a movie, or beginning to become nervous right before a test, or maybe even a little shy talking to your crush is completely normal. It starts to become a problem when anxiety takes control and cuts out important things in our life. Children with anxiety might start to feel more often than usual fear, nervousness, shyness, and often will try to avoid social events. Anxiety is a normal part of childhood, and usually the child is just going through a phase and will grow out of it. But when it continuously keeps recurring it begins to become a problem. There are a multitude of anxiety disorder ranging from General Anxiety Disorder(G.A.D), Panic Disorder, Social

Psychologists Rebecca Graham and Carl Weems were intrigued by the relationship between parent anxiety sensitivity and child anxiety sensitivity, especially when parents use corporal punishment versus positive parenting. In this study, they also looked at the child’s age and gender as well as the parenting context. The article defines anxiety sensitivity as: “the fear of anxiety-related bodily sensations arising from beliefs that these sensations have harmful somatic, psychological or social consequences” (Reiss 1991; Zinbarg, Barlow, & Brown 1997). There were 255 participants in this study consisting of males and females between the ages of 6 and 17. The majority of participants, about 43%, were Caucasian. About 38% of the participants were

Rejection from one caregiver at an early age is negatively related to a wide variety of outcomes. This paper will review multiple studies that highlight the effects of perceived parental rejection on children. This research includes attachment and resilience in relation to parental abandonment. This paper will also discuss play therapy as a possible therapy for rejected children to mitigate negative effects such as rejection sensitivity, depression, and anxiety.

A common, but dangerous, mindset that some parents or guardians take on in the face of their child’s unusual levels of anxiety is one of dismissal in which they disregard the forming issue as a phase of some sort that every child must endure; however, such a belief is only partially correct.

Looking into current study hypotheses, the result revealed that for first hypothesis, perceived father rejection is a more significant predictor of adults’ psychological adjustment than perceived mother rejection. This result is consistent with current study’s hypothesis. For the second hypothesis, the results showed that there were some gender differences in male and female perception of father and mother rejection on their psychological adjustment, which partially supports current study hypothesis.

Attachment and security serve as further causes of abnormal psychology. As above, the attachment model of psychopathology also places emphasis on the relationship between the parent and child but, rather than focusing on the perceptions of the child, there is a focus on the characteristics of the actual relationship. It is believed that if a parent does not provide a feeling of security, trust and love then the child will develop a negative view and, thus, result in an inability to regulate emotions and feelings. As a result, the child will be at a greater risk of developing a disorder.

Childhood anxiety disorder occur when feelings of stress or fear persist, and are overly intensive to the extent that it interferes with everyday life or childhood experiences. Source http://carescenter.ucla.edu/what-childhood-anxiety. Childhood anxiety disorders can take many forms, including generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, separation anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, selective mutism, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), posttraumatic stress disorder, and specific phobias. Each form of anxiety has it