Test 2 Flashcards
Anxiety disorders
Extreme feelings of panic, fear, or discomfort in everyday situations
- words for anxiety include worries, nervousness, and fear
- anxiety is a normal reaction to stress but anxiety can become a problem when it is excessive, persistent, and impairing.
When can anxiety become a problem
- excessive: too much. greater reaction. exaggeration compared to normal reaction
- persistant: it occurs over and over again. daily, occurs for a long period of time
- impairing: affects the child, parents,
Impairment
- social: creating friends, social isolation, withdraw. leading to negative thoughts like why don’t I feel accepted and fear of rejection
- family: if they need to go to appointments finding time, transportation, sitter if they have other kids, if they can’t meet parent’s expectations
- Academic: fear of failing, falling behind. This could lead to avoidance behaviors like not turning in an assignment due to the fear of doing poorly.
Adaptive Anxiety
- beneficial emotional state, anxiety can cause you to be more alert, more aware of your surroundings
- it can help you to perceive or sense danger
- it tells our body to prepare for any potential threats and dangers
Maladaptive Anxiety
- constant persistent fear, worry
- Having feelings of anxiety even where there is nothing to fear
- anxiety in children is on a continuum, kids have different levels of anxiety (low, medium, high)
- maladaptive anxiety is different from adaptive anxiety by it’s intensity(intense and out of proportion), chronicity (long lasting), and degree of impairment ( can’t perform daily task)
Anxiety in context of development
-anxiety in children is on a continuum, kids have different levels of anxiety (low, medium, high)
- it must reflect their stage of development. we must consider the child’s age and typical and atypical behaviors given their age. for example what are common fears for four year olds vs a 14 year old?
- children’s fears and worries reflect their present stage of cognitive, social, and emotional development (
Type of Anxiety Disorders
- Separation anxiety disorder
- social anxiety disorder
- Generalized Anxiety disorder
- specific phobias
- selective mutism
- panic disorder
- Agoraphobis
*first 3 the most commonly found in children
Seperation Anxiety Disorder (SAD)
- show excessive anxiety about leaving caregivers and other individuals to whom they are emotionally attached
- Intense fears about being away from home
- fear that something will happen to them or their caregiver if they are separated
- The fear, anxiety, or avoidance is persistent, lasting at least 4 weeks in children and adolescents and typically 6 months or more in adults.
- typically seen in 7-9 year old
Causes of Separation Anxiety Disorder
- following stressful life events like moving, parental divorce, natural disasters
-The quality of parent–child interactions, especially early attachment like a child going to the parent when they are scared. insure attachment predicts anxiety - Parents’ own levels of anxiety and insecurity can contribute to the development of SAD in their children
The presentation of symptoms can vary - younger children might seem clingy always on top go mom while older children may not physically be on mom they might be texting them and asking where are they and what are they doing?
Social Anxiety disorder
- worries and fear around other people
-fear of performance - extreme fears about being judged by others or embarrassment
- public speaking, attending a party or social gathering, or performing in front of others.
- usually emerges in late childhood or early adolescence because younger children are egocentric, they are more focused on themselves as one gets older we tend to form more important relationships and move away from being egocentric, we start to care about what others think
what are the two most common social situations that are feared?
- formal presentations
- unstructured social interactions
- Many youths with social anxiety disorder report intense discomfort reading aloud in class, giving a class presentation, performing for others on stage, or competing in an athletic event. Youths with social anxiety disorder often experience anxiety when initiating conversations with strangers, asking questions, or attending parties.
causes of social anxiety
- genetics, can run in families
- infants and toddlers high in behavioral inhibition are at risk
-parent child interactions like parents that have social anxiety themselves. Parents with anxiety can often be more controlling and overprotective. Parents can also have hostile and critical behaviors toward their child. parents can also teach their children to be anxious in social situation
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- persistent and extreme worries about many things
- not fear or panic
- worry about future misfortune
- closely associated with depression
- worry about two or more activities or events
- Intensity: strength and level of anxiety
-Duration: how long it last
-Impairment: how it affects everyday life and daily tasks - worry must interfere with their daily lives: it takes up their time and energy, affects concentration, can cause mood problems, somatic problems like headaches
- can be seen as perfectionist
causes of GAD
- children with difficult temperaments, behavioral inhibition, and less-than-optimal parent–child interactions are at risk for GAD
- three cognitive distortions seen in children with GAD: catastrophizing, overgeneralizing, and personalizing
Specific Phobia
intense fear reaction to a specific object or situation
- must be out of proportion
- (1) their anticipatory anxiety or fear significantly interferes with their day-to-day functioning or (2) their symptoms cause significant distress
- The phobic object or situation almost always provokes immediate fear or anxiety.
- animal most common in youths
- girls more likely than boys to develop most types of phobias except for blood which is equal
5 categories
1. Animals
2. Natural Environment
3. Blood
4. specific situations
5. other stimuli
causes of phobias
- genes play a small role
- people can inherit general tendency toward anxiety which can lead to a specific fear
- many phobias are acquired through classical conditioning (pairing two stimuli together)
- observational learning, watching others that have a fear of something as they avoid situations, events, and objects
-infomational transmission: talking and overhearing conversations
selective mutism
- failure to speak in certain situations, situations in which they are expected to speak
- pre school and young aged children
- usually speak at home with family members
- This is not due to
1. lack of knowledge
2. limited language profieciecy
3. other psychiatric condition like social anxiety - must persistent and last at least a month
- impairing
- interferes with educational achievement or social communication
- at least one month
causes of selective mutism
- affects less than 1% of children
- long term condition
- Emerging data indicate that selective mutism arises from the interaction of genetics, temperament, and early social learning
- condition is heritable
- children with this disorder are more likely to exhibit Behavioral inhibition which is the tendency to inhibit play and vocalization, to withdraw, and to seek a caregiver when encountering unfamiliar people or situations also social anxiety
Mowrer’s two-factor theory of anxiety
- can be used to explain the cause and maintenance of selective mutism
- according to this theory
- selective mutism arises because of classical conditioning, when children associate speaking in certain situations with heightened arousal and psychological distress. Selective mutism is maintained over time, however, because of operant conditioning, specifically, negative reinforcement. These children learn that they can lower their arousal and avoid distress by remaining silent. Over time, their habitual silence in certain situations can inhibit their speaking and social skills, making them increasingly less likely to break this cycle of negative reinforcement and speak out
