Parent Perceptions of an Anxiety Prevention Manual for Young Children

Olutosin Sanyaolu, Ava Robertson, Tabitha Naa Akuyea Addy and Laura Anne Nabors ()
Additional contact information
Olutosin Sanyaolu: Public Health Department, School of Arts and Sciences, Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO 81301, USA
Ava Robertson: Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Oh 45221, USA
Tabitha Naa Akuyea Addy: School of Human Services, College of Education, Criminal Justice, Human Services, and Information Technology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Oh 45221, USA
Laura Anne Nabors: School of Human Services, College of Education, Criminal Justice, Human Services, and Information Technology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Oh 45221, USA

IJERPH, 2025, vol. 22, issue 6, 1-14

Abstract: Parents are primary “supporters” for helping their children cope with feelings of anxiety, a significant concern for many young children. The current study examined parents’ perceptions of an anxiety management manual. Parents reviewed an anxiety coping manual for elementary school-aged children. This manual explained how anxiety influences the body and emotions, as well as presenting cognitive-behavioral anxiety management strategies. The strategies included breathing, imagery (superhero to fight worries and imagine your favorite place), relaxation, talking to supportive others, and using distraction. Convenience samples of 15 parents completed virtual interviews and 6 completed in-person interviews to determine their perceptions of the manual and of worry for today’s children. Qualitative analyses were performed to determine themes in the data. Results indicated that parents would use the manual and key themes, which were (1) learning new strategies for helping their child, (2) discussing children’s worries, and (3) sharing why the worry strategies would be useful (e.g., for emotion regulation). Parents felt that today’s children are worrying more about serious things like school performance and family stressors. Future research needs to examine parent implementation of the strategies over time to determine if the use of anxiety management strategies is related to lower levels of worry for young children, if the strategies reduce anxiety-related stress, and if prevention minimizes the impact of anxiety on emotional functioning.

Keywords: anxiety prevention; young children; anxiety management; cognitive-behavioral strategies; emotional functioning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/6/833/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/6/833/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:6:p:833-:d:1664395

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().