Teaching Parents to Reduce Anxiety Through Smartphone Practice

Anxiety is the most common mental health problem among children in the United States, affecting about 30% of kids. This study is testing whether parents' own anxious thinking patterns — specifically the tendency to see threat in situations that are actually harmless — can be changed using a smartphone app. The idea is that if parents learn to think differently about ambiguous situations, their children may also develop healthier thinking patterns and experience less anxiety.

Even the best anxiety treatments available today don't work for about half of children who need help. Researchers know that parents' anxiety plays a big role in whether their children develop anxiety, but they don't fully understand exactly how this happens. This study aims to identify and change one specific way parents may pass anxiety to their children — through their automatic thinking patterns — so that future treatments can be more personalized and effective.