JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Anxiety is the most common childhood mental health condition and is associated with impaired child outcomes, including increased risk of mental health difficulties in adulthood. Anxiety runs in families: when a parent has anxiety, their child has a 50 per cent higher chance of developing it themselves. Environmental factors are predominant in the intergenerational transmission of anxiety and, of these, parenting processes play a major role. Interventions that target parents to support them to limit the impact of any anxiogenic parenting behaviours are associated with reduced anxiety in their children. A brief UK-based group-based intervention delivered to parents within the UK National Health Service led to a 16 per cent reduction in children meeting criteria for an anxiety disorder. However, this intervention is not widely accessible. To widen access, a nine-module online version of this intervention has been developed. This course comprises psychoeducation and home practice delivered through text, video, animations, and practice tasks.

Objective:

To evaluate the feasibility of delivering a brief online intervention for parents and assess its effectiveness in reducing child anxiety symptoms.

Methods:

A randomised controlled trial (RCT) of a community sample of 1,754 parents with self-identified high levels of anxiety with a child aged 2-11. Parents in the intervention arm to receive access to the online course, which they undertake at a self-determined rate. The control arm receives no intervention. Follow-up data collection at 6 and 9-21 months. Intention to treat analysis will be conducted on outcomes including child anxiety, child mental health symptoms and wellbeing; parental anxiety, wellbeing; and parenting behaviours.

Results:

Funded in April 2020, recruitment started in February 2021 and projected to end October 2022.

Conclusions:

The results of the RCT will provide evidence on the utility of an online course in preventing intergenerational transmission of anxiety and increase understanding of familial anxiety. Clinical Trial: Prospectively registered on ClinicalTrials.Gov NCT04755933 on Feb 16th 2021.