An examination of the relationship between parental accommodation and childhood anxiety through a cognitive-behavioral therapy intervention with parent-training

This document proposes a study to further understand the relevance of addressing parental accommodation in the treatment of childhood anxiety disorders and further evaluate the value of involving parents in treatment. Research looking at youth with OCD has examined the impact of addressing accommodation with parents during treatment, but no studies to date have looked at targeting parental accommodation when treating youth with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Separation Anxiety Disorder, and Social Phobia. Additionally, although there have been a number of studies that have looked at generally including parents in CBT interventions for anxiety, there have been mixed results on its impact and benefit. Therefore the purpose of this present study is to understand the relationship between accommodation and anxiety in the context of treatment. The study involves gathering data from a sample of anxiety-disordered youth and their parents, who are participating in an ongoing intervention study that compares CBT with a parent component to child-only CBT. It is hypothesized that by addressing accommodation with parents in CBT treatment through a parent-training component, the number of accommodating behaviors will be reduced, and that this reduction in accommodation will be correlated with improvements in child treatment outcomes.