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Preventive Intervention for Anxious Preschoolers and Their Parents: Strengthening Early Emotional Development

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Abstract

The high prevalence and early onset of anxiety disorders have inspired innovative prevention efforts targeting young at-risk children. With parent–child prevention models showing success for older children and adolescents, the goal of this study was to evaluate a parent–child indicated preventive intervention for preschoolers with mild to moderate anxiety symptoms. Sixteen children (ages 3–5) and at least one of their parents participated in Strengthening Early Emotional Development (SEED), a new 10-week intervention with concurrent groups for parents and children. Outcome measures included clinician-rated and parent-rated assessments of anxiety symptoms, as well as measures of emotion knowledge, parent anxiety, and parental attitudes about children’s anxiety. Participation in SEED was associated with reduced child anxiety symptoms and improved emotion understanding skills. Parents reported decreases in their own anxiety, along with attitudes reflecting enhanced confidence in their children’s ability to cope with anxiety. Reductions in child and parent anxiety were maintained at 3-month follow-up. Findings suggest that a parent–child cognitive-behavioral preventive intervention may hold promise for young children with mild to moderate anxiety. Improvements in parent anxiety and parental attitudes may support the utility of intervening with parents. Fostering increased willingness to encourage their children to engage in new and anxiety-provoking situations may help promote continued mastery of new skills and successful coping with anxiety.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a federal grant awarded to Drs. Carrie Masia Warner and Christopher Lucas from the National Institute of Mental Health, R34, MH075917. The authors would like to thank all of the children and parents who participated, as well as the research assistants who helped with data collection and entry, including Emily Ocner and Corinne Sweeney.

Conflict of interest

Drs. Fox, Masia Warner, Ludwig, Ryan, Colognori, Lucas, and Brotman, and Ms. Lerner report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, NYU Child Study Center, New York University Langone Medical Center, 215 Lexington Avenue, 13th Floor, New York, NY, 10016, USA

    Jeremy K. Fox, Carrie Masia Warner, Amy B. Lerner, Kristy Ludwig, Daniela Colognori, Christopher P. Lucas & Laurie Miller Brotman

  2. Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA

    Carrie Masia Warner

  3. School of Psychology, Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1000 River Road, T-WH1-01, Teaneck, New Jersey, USA

    Julie L. Ryan

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  1. Jeremy K. Fox
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  2. Carrie Masia Warner
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  3. Amy B. Lerner
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  4. Kristy Ludwig
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  8. Laurie Miller Brotman
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Correspondence to Carrie Masia Warner.

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Fox, J.K., Warner, C.M., Lerner, A.B. et al. Preventive Intervention for Anxious Preschoolers and Their Parents: Strengthening Early Emotional Development. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 43, 544–559 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-012-0283-4

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