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Abstract

Few clinicians would suggest that the parent’s role during the treatment of their child’s anxiety should be limited to keeping a chair warm in the therapist’s waiting room. In fact, etiological models suggest that parenting behaviors impact child anxiety (Hudson & Rapee, 2001). However, the optimal role of parents in the treatment of children with anxiety disorders is unclear. What parent training strategies are helpful for alleviating childhood anxiety? Is parent training a key treatment component or is it ancillary? Are there benefits to parent therapy, e.g., anxiety management training? What is the efficacy of applying nonanxiety specific behavioral parent training approaches, such as those employed for disruptive behavior disorders? Although the answers are far from unambiguous, this chapter will (1) discuss the rationale for parent training and parental involvement in psychotherapy for child anxiety, (2) review research in this developing area, and (3) discuss limitations in the extant research and recommendations for practice and future study.

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Lewin, A.B. (2011). Parent Training for Childhood Anxiety. In: McKay, D., Storch, E. (eds) Handbook of Child and Adolescent Anxiety Disorders. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7784-7_27

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