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Assessment of Parental Experiential Avoidance in a Clinical Sample of Children with Anxiety Disorders

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Abstract

This investigation seeks to establish the psychometric properties of an adapted measure of experiential avoidance (EA) in the parenting context by assessing its relation to other parenting constructs and psychosocial correlates of child anxiety in a clinical sample. Participants were 154 children (90 female, 64 male) diagnosed with anxiety disorders and their parents (148 mothers, 119 fathers). The newly developed Parental Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (PAAQ) was administered to parents along with self-report measures of adult experiential avoidance, parental psychopathology, affective expression, and parental control behaviors. A subsample of participants, n = 35, were re-administered the PAAQ to assess temporal stability. Factor analysis of the PAAQ yielded a two-factor solution with factors labeled Inaction and Unwillingness. Temporal stability of the PAAQ was found to be moderate, r = .68–.74. Internal consistency was fair across subscales of the PAAQ, α = .64–.65. Correlational analysis of the PAAQ and parent-report measures support the criterion validity of the PAAQ, suggesting that the PAAQ correlates with parent-report measures of parental locus of control, affective expression, and controlling parental behaviors as well as child psychopathology symptoms. Finally, the clinical applicability of the PAAQ is indicated by the PAAQ’s ability to predict a significant amount of variance in parent- and clinician-rated levels of child anxiety and related psychopathology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Boston University Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, 648 Beacon Street, 6th Floor, Boston, MA, 02215, USA

    Daniel M. Cheron & Donna B. Pincus

  2. University of Miami, Miami, USA

    Jill T. Ehrenreich

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  1. Daniel M. Cheron
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  2. Jill T. Ehrenreich
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  3. Donna B. Pincus
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Correspondence to Daniel M. Cheron.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

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Cheron, D.M., Ehrenreich, J.T. & Pincus, D.B. Assessment of Parental Experiential Avoidance in a Clinical Sample of Children with Anxiety Disorders. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 40, 383–403 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-009-0135-z

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