Parents “may be particularly concerned about medication side effects,” say
Denise Chavira, Ph.D., of the University of California, San Diego and
colleagues.
The study in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral
Pediatrics also
concludes that white parents are more accepting of both medication and
counseling than Latino or black parents.
Chavira and colleagues collected 190 parents’ opinions on social
anxiety disorder treatment, along with information about their children’s
levels of social anxiety and previous mental health therapy.
Contrary to what the researchers expected, parents of children suffering
with social anxiety disorder did not have significantly different treatment
preferences or attitudes about social anxiety compared with those who did
not have children with the disorder.
“It is likely that the somewhat ‘invisible’ nature of
these disorders precludes parents from fully understanding their severity
and associated impact,” Chavira and colleagues say.
The researchers also found that parents whose children had used either
medication or counseling in the past had more favorable feelings toward
the two types of therapy. Parents who had a history of emotional problems
themselves were also more likely to say that counseling would be useful
for treating social anxiety disorder.
