The Effect of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy on Separation Anxiety in 3-6-Year-old Children of Nurses

Abstract

Background: Separation anxiety disorder is considered as the most common anxiety disorder in childhood. Failure to treat this disorder in early age can be converted into a risk factor for childhood and adolescent psychiatric disorders. Objectives: This study aimed at investigating the effect of parent-child interaction therapy on reducing the symptoms of separation anxiety disorder among the nurses' children aged between 3 and 6 years old working in educational hospitals in Qazvin. Methods: The intervention was designed as pre- and post-test along with the control group. The sample included 67 children aged 3 - 6 years' old who were divided into intervention and control groups using the blocking method. The intervention consists of three steps: child directed interaction, bravery directed interaction and parent directed interaction which was performed for 8 sessions per weak. No intervention was performed for the control group. The obtained data were collected using the Spence questionnaire (parents' version) and the results were evaluated. Results: Intervention therapy significantly reduced the symptoms of separation anxiety in the intervention group at the post-test stage compared to the control group. The mean of separation anxiety decreased from 10.82 ± 0.62 to 7.69 ± 0.52 in the intervention group. Conclusions: Parent-child interaction therapy can be used as an effective treatment plan to reduce the symptoms of separation anxiety disorder among preschool children.