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Read This Post To Know About Anxiousness In Kids
It has been a known fact for several years that restless parents may pass anxiety disorders on to their kids. Although this truth is well known, no one is prepared to say yes to this query "is stress inherited". However, a new research by the scientists at Johns Hopkins Children's Centre, came up with the conclusion that a family-based program where parents and kids are being treated together, may help to eliminate the symptoms and risks of anxiety among these children.
Each person can get anxious every once in awhile, but when the problem starts taking over one's life, the problem is then called anxiety disorder. It can be extremely nerve-racking and cease people from living their lives wholly. Many people with anxiety disorder might also have phobic disorders and get anxiety attacks. For the study purposes, the Hopkins researchers looked at 40 kids from the ages between 7 and 12 years. The kids were not diagnosed with anxiety disorder themselves but all of them had at least one parent who was diagnosed with the problem.
What other proof do we really need to answer the question "is anxiety inherited". Researchers randomly divided the participants into two categories, with 20 of the kids and their families taking part in an 8-week intellectual behavioural treatment program, while the other 20 were put on a waiting list and did not receive any treatment during the period of the research, but were offered therapy one year later. The CBT program, which consisted of one-hour-long weekly sessions, was focusing on an improvement of problem-solving abilities, training regarding panic attacks, as well as helped parents discover and change behaviours believed to contribute to anxiety in the kids.
The main researcher of the study, Dr. Golda Ginsburg, PH.D., a child psychologist at Hopkins Children's Center and an associate teacher of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said that according to the statistics gathered by the analysts, the kids of parents with an anxiety disorder are up to seven times more prone to develop the disorder themselves, and up to 65 per cent of children who reside with an anxious parent meet the criteria for panic attacks.
The actual outcome of the research discovered that within a period of 12 months, 30 per cent of the kids who did not take part in the therapy program, acquired an anxiety problem, compared to none of the kids who were enrolled in the family based treatment program. A 40 per cent decrease in anxiety symptoms throughout the year after the therapy program were independently reported by parents together with researchers who assessed the behaviour of the children and their parents. There was no drop of anxiety symptoms observed among kids on the waiting list.
The parental behaviors personalized with therapy program included overprotection, excessive criticism and excessive expression of worry and stress in front of the kids. The program targeted childhood risk factors like avoiding anxiety-provoking circumstances and anxious thoughts. According to a recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine, it is deterrence but not treatment, of childhood anxiousness, that is of a primary importance, since anxiety disorder influence one in every 5 children in the United States, but often remain unacknowledged. If not treated in time, the dilemma can lead to depression, substance abuse and poor academic performance throughout childhood years and way into adulthood.
Results of the research will be published in the June issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. The research was financed by the US government's National Institute of Mental Health. Thus "is stress inherited", yes. Are we able to change the pattern of behavior yes!
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