Therapeutic Gaming for Adolescent Anxiety

Anxiety disorders (AD) are the most prevalent of the mental health conditions and are associated with significant and long-lasting burden of disease both for affected individuals and healthcare systems designed to support them. Despite this, barriers to traditional interventions mean less than half of adolescents experiencing ADs seek-treatment, with less than 20% of treatment-seekers ultimately receiving a scientifically validated intervention. Therapeutic games show significant potential to help reduce AD in adolescents, with some concerns remaining over their abilities to engage users, particularly over time. The chapter presents two studies relating to the development of a new mobile gamified intervention for adolescents with AD. This includes a user-feedback study on currently available games for anxiety and depression, followed by a user-feedback, acceptability, and intention-to-use study of a development version of the new intervention.

Factors Influencing Adolescent Anxiety: The Roles of Mothers, Teachers and Peers

Grounded in social–ecological system theory, the present study tested the mediating effects of maternal psychological flexibility and mother–adolescent attachment on the relationship between maternal adult attachment and adolescent anxiety as well as the moderating effects of teacher support and peer support on the relationship between mother–adolescent attachment and adolescent anxiety. In total, 1139 Chinese mothers and adolescents completed a set of questionnaires, including the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale, Parental Psychological Flexibility Questionnaire, Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. The results revealed that maternal adult attachment had a positive impact on adolescent anxiety. The relationship between maternal adult attachment and adolescent anxiety was chain mediated by maternal psychological flexibility and mother–adolescent attachment. In addition, teacher support and peer support had moderating effects on the relationship between mother–adolescent attachment and adolescent anxiety. These findings support the systematic social ecosystem perspective and highlight the differences in the effects of different maternal adult attachment styles, teacher support, and peer support on adolescent anxiety.

Fearful temperament in middle childhood predicts adolescent attention bias and anxiety symptoms: The moderating role of frontal EEG asymmetry

The current study provided first analyses of the moderating effect of baseline-to-task frontal EEG asymmetry on the associations between 9-year fearful temperament and adolescent attention bias to threat as well as anxiety symptoms. Participants include a community sample of 122 children (60 boys, 62 girls; Mage = 14.66 years; Range = 11.82–18.13 years). Baseline-to-task frontal EEG asymmetry at age 9 moderated the relation between fearful temperament at age 9 and adolescent anxiety symptoms. Specifically, fearful temperament predicted adolescent anxiety symptoms when children showed greater right activation from baseline to an executive function task, but not greater left activation. Baseline-to-task frontal EEG asymmetry moderated the association between fearful temperament and sustained (i.e., stimulus onset asynchrony is 1250 ms) but not automatic attention bias (i.e., stimulus onset asynchrony is 500 ms). Children with greater left frontal activation from baseline to task more efficiently direct attention away from threat. Adolescent automatic attention bias to threat was related to concurrent anxiety symptoms. These findings illustrate the importance of considering frontal EEG asymmetry to shape how fearful children process threat and to influence their behavioral problems.

Priorities for research in child and adolescent anxiety and depression: a priority setting partnership with youth and professionals

Background: A starting point for evaluating the effectiveness of treatments should be to identify evidence gaps. Furthermore, such evaluations should consider the perspectives of patients, clinicians and carers to ensure relevance and potentially influence future research initiatives. Methods: Our approach, inspired by the James Lind Alliance methods, involved three steps. First, we performed a document analysis by identifying interventions and outcomes in two recently published overviews of systematic reviews, which summarised the effects of interventions for anxiety and depression in children and adolescents. Second, we surveyed children and adolescents with personal experiences of depression or anxiety as well as clinicians, and asked them to suggest treatments and outcomes associated with uncertainty. Finally, we facilitated a consensus process where clinicians and youth mental health patient representatives were invited to prioritise research uncertainties in separate consensus processes. Results: The survey included 674 respondents who reported a total of 1267 uncertainties. Independent coding by four investigators revealed 134 suggestions for treatments of anxiety, 90 suggestions for treatments of depression, 84 for outcomes of interventions for anxiety and 71 suggestions for outcomes of interventions for depression. Two separate priority setting workshops with eight clinicians and ten youth resulted in four independent top ten priority lists. Conclusion: Top ten lists of treatments and outcome domains of anxiety and depression in children and adolescents was identified by youth and clinicians. The results may influence the research agenda, and ultimately benefit patients.

CBT for Childhood Anxiety: Reviewing the State of Personalised Intervention Research

This article presents a mini-review of the state of personalised intervention research in the field of child and adolescent anxiety. We evaluated narrative, systematic and meta-analytic reviews of key research methodologies and how they relate to current approaches for personalising CBT, specifically. Preliminary evidence of predictors (severity of primary disorder, social anxiety disorder (SoAD), comorbid depression, parental psychopathology, parental involvement and duration of treatment), moderators (type of primary disorder) and mediators (self-talk, coping, problem-solving and comorbid symptoms) of CBT outcomes provides content for several personalised approaches to treatment. Finally, we present a novel conceptual model depicting the state of personalised intervention research in childhood anxiety and propose a research agenda for continued progress.

Menurunkan Kecemasan Remaja pada Masa Pandemi Covid-9 Melalui Pendidikan Kesehatan Secara Daring di Dukuh Sutorejo Kecamatan Mulyorejo

Pandemi COVID-19 membawa perubahan pada berbagai aspek kehidupan termasuk aspek kesehatan mental. Tak hanya orang dewasa, kondisi psikologis remaja pun rentan terganggu oleh situasi. Salah satu upaya mengatasinya dapat dilakukan dengan cara memberikan pendidikan kesehatan(health education) melalui media daring, sehingga dapat meminimalisir penyebaran Covid-19. Pendidikan kesehatan melalui daring ini diharapkandapat menurunkan kecemasan remaja akibat pandemi. Kegiatan memberikan Pendidikan Kesehatan ini dilaksanakan kepada remaja yang mengalami kecemasan. Remaja terlebih dahulu diskrining tingkat kecemasannya Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS). Remaja yang terlibat dalam kegiatan ini adalah remaja yang mengalami kecemasan ringan dan sedang. Jumlah remaja yang diberikan Pendidikan Kesehatan sebanyak 5 orang remaja dengan klasifikasi tiga partisipan mengalami kecemasan ringan dan dua partisipan lainnya mengalami kecemasan sedang. Pelaksanaan pendidikankesehatan melalui daring dilakukan sebanyak tiga kali pertemuan. Hasil evaluasi menunjukkan bahwa terjadi penurunan tingkat kecemasanberdasarkan skor yang diperoleh partisipan yang diukur mengunakan HARS. Tiga partisipan yang mengalami kecemasan ringan menjadi tidak cemas dan dua partisipan dengan kecemasan sedang menjadi cemas ringan. Kata Kunci: Pendidikan Kesehatan, Daring, Kecemasan, Remaja, Covid-19Reducing Adolescent Anxiety during the Covid-9 Pandemic Through Online Health Education in Sutorejo, Mulyorejo DistrictABSTRACKThe COVID-19 pandemic has brought changes to various aspects of life, including aspects of mental health. Not only adults, the psychological condition of teenagers is also vulnerable to being disturbed by the situation. One of the efforts to overcome this can be done by providing health education through online media, so as to minimize the spread of Covid-19. This online health education is expected to reduce adolescent anxiety due to the pandemic. The activity of providing Health Education is carried out for adolescents who experience anxiety. Adolescents were first screened for anxiety levels on the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS). Adolescents who are involved in this activity are teenagers who experience mild and moderate anxiety. The number of adolescents who were given Health Education was 5 adolescents with a classification of three participants experiencing mild anxiety and two other participants experiencing moderate anxiety. The implementation of health education through online was carried out in three meetings. The results of the evaluation showed that there was a decrease in the level of anxiety based on the scores obtained by the participants as measured using HARS. Three participants who experienced mild anxiety became less anxious and two participants with moderate anxiety became mildly anxious.Keywords: Health Education, Online, Anxiety, Youth, Covid-19

Features of psychological training in working with anxious teenagers

Актуальность статьи вызвана наличием большой доли тревожных подростков, нуждающихся в своевременном решении имеющейся психологической проблемы. Цель статьи заключается в апробации идей, относящихся к обоснованию цикла из десяти тренинговых занятий «Быть в гармонии с собой», обеспечивающих научно-методическое оснащение процесса осознания причин тревожности подростков, а также способов ее предотвращения или преодоления с учетом общих и дифференцированных ситуационных и личностных ресурсов. В тренинге заложена возможность освоения способов снижения тревожности на ранних этапах налаживания подростком социально-психологического контакта; предусмотрено выявление собственных личностных ресурсов, освоение способов их применения в ситуациях усиления тревожности, закрепление навыков саморегуляции с учетом общих особенностей и характерного вида тревожности. Акцент сделан на закреплении опыта позитивных изменений с учетом реальных условий проявления реактивной или личностной тревожности. Подход к созданию психологического тренинга для тревожных подростков на основе предложенных идей может быть использован в прикладных исследованиях и в профессиональной деятельности педагога-психолога. The relevance of the article is caused by the presence of a large proportion of anxious adolescents who need a timely solution to the existing psychological problem. The aim of the article is to test ideas related to the justification of a cycle of ten training sessions "To be in harmony with yourself", providing scientific and methodological equipment for the process of understanding the causes of adolescent anxiety, as well as ways to prevent or overcome it, taking into account common and differentiated situational and personal resources. The training provides for the possibility of mastering ways to reduce anxiety at the early stages of establishing socio-psychological contact by a teenager. It provides the identification of their own personal resources, the development of ways to use them in situations of increased anxiety, the consolidation of self-regulation skills, taking into account general features and the characteristic type of anxiety. The emphasis is placed on consolidating the experience of positive changes, taking into account the real conditions of the manifestation of reactive or personal anxiety. The approach to creating psychological training for anxious adolescents based on the proposed ideas can be used in applied research and in the professional activity of a teacher-psychologist.

Overparenting, Parent-Child Conflict and Anxiety among Chinese Adolescents: A Cross-Lagged Panel Study

Background: Overparenting is an emerging parenting style in which parents over-protect their children from difficulties and challenges by intruding into their lives and providing extensive assistance to them. Unfortunately, longitudinal studies related to overparenting were severely lacking, particularly on its impacts on early adolescents. Moreover, studies examining the mediational pathways through which overparenting is associated with adolescent anxiety are scant. This study examined the mediating role of parent-child conflict (father-child and mother-child) in the relationship between overparenting (paternal and maternal) and adolescent anxiety over time. Method: Based on a three-wave longitudinal data of 1074 Chinese early adolescents in Hong Kong, the relationships among paternal and maternal overparenting, father- and mother-child conflict, and adolescent anxiety were assessed. Results: Mother-child conflict mediated the relationship between maternal overparenting and adolescent anxiety over time. Besides, a reverse association of prior adolescent anxiety with subsequent maternal overparenting via mother-child conflict was also identified. In addition, adolescent gender and family intactness did not moderate the relationships among overparenting, parent-child conflict, and adolescent anxiety. Discussion: This present study identified that the bidirectional relationship between maternal overparenting and adolescent anxiety via mother-child conflict over time, which sheds new light on the study of overparenting on adolescent well-being in the Chinese communities.