Mills, Jessica (2021) The Impact of a Self-Help Parent-focused Internet Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Program on Child Anxiety. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Anxiety affects 6.9% of Australian children. Open-access self-guided Internet Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (ICBT) programs provide an accessible, affordable, and effective childhood anxiety treatment. However, research investigating parent-focused ICBT is limited. Study aim one examined the parent-focused BRAVE ICBT Program's preliminary feasibility and if parents report improvements in childhood anxiety symptoms throughout the program. Aim two examined parent engagement (sessions completed) and anxiety changes during the ICBT program. Both aims analysed differences between parents of children and parents of teenagers. Participants were 319 clinically referred Australian registered parents of children aged 7-12 years (n=195) and parents of teenagers aged 12-17 years (n=124), with reported anxiety one standard deviation above the mean. Parents self-reported their children’s anxiety symptoms at baseline and every session to create a final assessment point. Repeatedmeasures analysis of variance revealed that a parent-focused ICBT program was statistically significant at reducing childhood anxiety throughout the program. No differences in reported anxiety symptoms between parents of children and parents of teenagers were shown. A moderated regression reported percentage of sessions completed positively predicted greater changes in anxiety scores, with no reported difference between ages. Results suggest that parent-focused Self-Help ICBT programs are a feasible treatment for childhood anxiety. However, similar mean changes in scores between children and teenagers were unexpected. Thus, possibly parents of teenagers may struggle to report internalizing symptoms accurately. Nonetheless, this program could be an effective and affordable alternative for children struggling during COVID without access to other treatments.
|
Statistics for this ePrint Item |
| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Sonja March |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 31 Jul 2025 01:40 |
| Last Modified: | 31 Jul 2025 01:40 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | childhood anxiety ; parent-focused ; self-help ; internet-CBT ; BRAVE |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52582 |
Actions (login required)
 |
Archive Repository Staff Only |
