Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry
Sec. Child Mental Health and Interventions
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frcha.2024.1347295
This article is part of the Research Topic Rising Stars in Child Mental Health and Interventions View all 12 articles

Running Head: ACT FOR CAREGIVERS OF ANXIOUS YOUTH Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Group Protocol for Caregivers of Anxious Youth: An Open Trial Pilot Study

Provisionally accepted
Jacquelyn Raftery-Helmer Jacquelyn Raftery-Helmer 1*Ashley S. Hart Ashley S. Hart 2Madeline R. Levitt Madeline R. Levitt 3Steven Hodge Steven Hodge 2Lisa W. Coyne Lisa W. Coyne 4Phoebe S. Moore Phoebe S. Moore 2
  • 1 Worcester State University, Worcester, United States
  • 2 University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
  • 3 Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, New York, New York, United States
  • 4 Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Anxiety disorders are common, distressing, and impairing for children and families. Cognitive-behavioral interventions targeting the role of family interactions in child anxiety treatment may be limited by lack of attention to antecedents to parental control; specifically, internal parent factors such as experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion. This pilot study evaluates the preliminary efficacy of a group-delivered caregiver treatment program, ACT for Parents of Anxious Children (ACT-PAC) that targets parental experiential avoidance, cognitive fusion, and child internalizing symptoms. Twenty three youth ages 7-17 years with a primary anxiety disorder diagnosis and their primary caregiver participated in six one-hour, weekly group treatment sessions. Parents and children reported on child symptomatology and parents reported on parent symptomatology and quality of life at two assessment points: within one week before ACT-PAC treatment and within one week after treatment. Parents self-reported on parental internal processes specifically targeted by ACT (e.g., cognitive fusion) weekly during the 6-week treatment. Results support the feasibility and acceptability of ACT-PAC and indicate reductions in parents' cognitive fusion and child internalizing symptoms.

    Keywords: Child anxiety, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Parenting, Child internalizing problems, Cognitive Fusion Wordcount: 5, 629; 4 figures, 2 tables

    Received: 30 Nov 2023; Accepted: 19 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Raftery-Helmer, Hart, Levitt, Hodge, Coyne and Moore. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jacquelyn Raftery-Helmer, Worcester State University, Worcester, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.