Introduction to Special Issue: Developments in the Etiology and Psychosocial Treatments of Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adolescents

Excerpt

Anxiety is a normal emotional response to a perceived threat to one’s physical or emotional well-being. Feeling fearful and fleeing from a genuinely dangerous situation is adaptive. However, if the anxiety response is elicited by a situation or object that is not truly dangerous, then the anxiety and the avoidance associated with it are no longer adaptive. A diagnosis of an anxiety disorder is warranted if the anxiety response is excessive in frequency, intensity and/or duration, and if it results in significant impairment in functioning. Excessive anxiety is distressing to children and adolescents, and the associated avoidance frequently interferes with their ability to engage in developmentally appropriate tasks and activities. Alarmingly, anxiety disorders are one of the most common psychological difficulties experienced by children and adolescents, and these disorders tend to persist into late adolescence and adulthood unless effective treatment is received (Essau et al. 2000; Ollendick and March 2004; Ollendick and Seligman 2006) …