Developmental Psychology

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Childhood anxiety

Anxiety disoders are extreme distress to a stimuus that is repeated and interferers with daily life. There are various types of anxiety disorders, that can range from specific phobias, panic disorder or separation anxiety, but the most common form in Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Accoridng the the DSM-5, GAD is excessive worry or anxiety occuring more days than not for a period of 6 months or longer abot multiple stimulus', this could be work or school performance. This can diagnosed if a child has one or more of the following symptoms for most days for a 6 month period or longer: restless or on edge; muscle tension; sleep difficulty; irritability; easily fatigued and difficulty concentrating or mind going blank.

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Childhood anxiety

There are many contributing factors to anxiety disorders within children which explain why some children have them and others do not. Some children have an atypical development, meaning the age of onset or patterns of behaviour do not follow typical development. This could be a delay in the appearance of a specific behaviour, such as not speaking by the age of 3, or a behaviour that is qualitatively different. Atypical development can occur in many ways, such as a delay in a child's motor skills or they fail to show normal social behaviour. There may be issues surrounding intelligence or understandings, or they may be unable to regulate and understand emotions in ways that are age appropriate. There may be a delay in speaking and language development, and the child may act aggressively towards others.

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Childhood anxiety

It is thought to be believed that family aggression and genetics may make children vulnerable to anxiety disorders, for example if its common for the family to suffer from anxiety disorders. Cooper et al (2006) found that parents with children with anxiety disorders have a raised rate of anxiety compared to a control group with an increase risk. However, there is still very limited evidence to support his theory. The evidence that has been found als has an interaction with environmental factors, which combined then causes anxiety within the child.

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Childhood anxiety

A child's temperament is aso thought to play a part in a child's vulnerabilty to anxiety disorders, more specifically their behavioural inhibition (BI). A child's BI refers to the tendency to feel stress or withdraw from unfamiliar situations, people or environments. BI is generally a stable trait in the subset of children, and 50% of children have been found to maintain their early BI classification throughout childhood (Kagan et al, 1998). Strong associations have been found between BI children and anxiety disorders within parents. Longitudinal research from various researchers have found that early BI has been found to predict later anxiety, especially in the social form.

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Childhood anxiety

Despite genetics having the potentiality to play a part in the development of anxiety disorders in children, they are more likely to be combined with environmental factors, or these factors occur on their own. There has been research into the role of life events and difficulties on the onset of anxiety disorders. As disorders such as fears and phobias are thought to be classically conditioned, research found there is an association between a neutral stimulus with a traumatic event, which an anxiety response then stems from. However, it is hard to establish this connection as some people suffer from a traumatic event but do not develop an anxiety disorder. The processes whereby the experience of negative life events increases risk for the disorder are likely to be many-sided. Early exposure to adversity may affect the child's developing phsiological systems and the cognitive system.

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Childhood anxiety

Further, modelling and information processing may play a part in the development of anxiety disorders. Modelling concerns the child's observation of other's anxiety, and is generally referred to as a modelling or vicarious process. Murray (2008) investigated these effects in mothers with social phobias and a non-anxious control group. Both groups conversed with a stranger while their infant watched, and the infants response to the stranger was rated. Materal expressed anxiety at 10 months, which was, as expected, more prominant in the social phobia group, and predicted an increase to avoidance of strangers at 14 months. Hurrell et al (2015) also investigated parental reactions to negative emotions and found that children with anxiety experience deficits in a range of emotion functioning - including sadness and anger. They also found mothers offered less problem-solving and emotional help during stress. However, maternal reactions and support were associated with better emotional regulation in anxious children.

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Childhood anxiety

Information transfer concerns communication to the child of information regarding the threatening properties of the environment. A series of experimental studies by Field and Lawson (2003) set out to examine the role of providing information converying threat in the development of child's fears and avoidance. They were consistent findings of the impact of negative information on child fear and avoidance, and also evidence for the persistence of effects over several months.

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Childhood anxiety

It was through the study of information transfer that the role parents play in the development of anxiety disorders of their children is particularly important. Whaley et al (1999) and Moore et al (2004) found that anxious parents are more likely to make catastrophizing comments to their children than non-anxious parents. Further, Barrett et al (1996) found that, following a parent-child discussion, anxious children became more likely to choose avoidant solutions to hypothetical threats. This evidence leads us to believe that through tuition and normal conversations, this negative information transfer is relevant to the development of anxiety. Parents play many other parts such as warmth and control. The lack of warmth from a parent can lead to a child's perspective of the environment hostile and threatening, therefore leading to the development of an anxiety disorder. Further, parents being over-controlling is also a contributing factor as it leads to the child having limited competence and become masters at avoidance of challenges. Parents playing a part can lead to bi-directional effects i.e. BI children and anxious mother can lead to parenting styles that contribute to childhood anxiety. 

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Childhood anxiety

Overall, there are many factors that contribute to the development of anxiety in children, such as genetics or environmental influences. Studies found that mostly these two factors intertwine rather than contribute on their own. It has also been found that parents play quite a large role in the development of anxiety disorders, and many studies have found that if a parent has an anxiety disorder, then there is a likelihood that the child will also develop a disorder.

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