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Child / Adolescent - Anxiety

(PS5-33) Impact of Parent Anxiety and Depression on Assessment of Youth Internalizing Disorders and Suicidal Ideation

Friday, November 15, 2024
2:30 PM – 3:30 PM EST
Location: Franklin Hall, Level 4, Marriott Downtown
Abstract Text: Pediatric internalizing disorders are prevalent and impairing in children and adolescents (Merikangas et al., 2010) and elevate the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Discrepancies between parent and youth views of internalizing symptoms present challenges in case conceptualization, planning appropriate intervention targets, and successfully engaging families in care. The present study examined how parental psychopathology may relate to ratings of youth internalizing symptoms. All data were drawn from the baseline assessment of the Brief Behavioral Therapy (BBT) randomized control trial, a study assessing an efficacious transdiagnostic intervention for internalizing youths (Weersing et al., 2017). Youth (N = 185) and parents reported on youth symptoms on the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ), Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED), and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Items from the MFQ also were used to create a suicidality index (Jeffreys et al., 2016). Parents completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) to describe their own symptoms. As hypothesized, discrepancies emerged between youth and parent reports of youth symptoms, with only small to moderate correlations between reporters (all r < 0.34). Further, parent report of youth symptoms was significantly predicted by their own symptoms. Specifically, parent anxiety predicted higher parent ratings on the MFQ-P (β = .28, p = .028), SCARED (β = .54, p</span> < .001), and SDQ (β = .14, p = .003), while parent depression predicted higher parent ratings on their child's suicidality (β = .04, p = .016). In contrast, parent psychopathology was not significantly related to youth reports of their own symptoms, except for parental anxiety predicting higher scores on the MFQ-C (β = .37, p = .007). Findings suggest that parental mental health may be a critical filter in their view of youth symptoms. For the final poster, we will further examine independent evaluator ratings of youth symptoms to understand how parent symptoms may function in clinical spaces. Implications of findings will be discussed.
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