Why Parents Accommodate

Abstract

This chapter reviews common reasons and motives that maintain the high levels of family accommodation commonly reported by parents of anxious children. Among these reasons are to reduce child distress, the belief that anxiety is harmful to children, the need to promote short-term child or family functioning, to protect a child’s social status, the parent’s own anxiety, and aggressive behaviors of anxious children that promote family accommodation. This chapter discusses each of these reasons, beliefs, and motivational factors and addresses the challenges they present to clinicians working to reduce family accommodation in the treatment of childhood anxiety disorders. An empathic understanding of the factors contributing to family accommodation is critical to effective intervention by the therapist.