Family involvement in treating children with phobic and anxiety disorders: A look ahead

Most interventions currently being tested for children with phobic and anxiety disorders are individual child-focused treatments in which family members generally play little or no direct role in the therapeutic process. Although this approach to treatment is generally efficacious, involving family members more centrally in the therapeutic process is one important way to enhance treatment effectiveness and maintenance. A framework to help guide researchers and clinicians in the task of devising and implementing interventions that more centrally involve family members is presented. In addition, research on family factors associated with childhood anxiety is summarized and how such factors may influence treatment outcome and maintenance is discussed. Based on a “transfer of control” model of change, an innovative intervention designed to target both individual and family factors is described.