ArticleChild psychiatry and human development2026
The Challenges of Parenting a Child with Anxiety: Insights from a Qualitative Lived Experience Study.
Article in Child psychiatry and human development, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
While research has explored parental perspectives on help-seeking and treatment engagement for child anxiety, less is known about how parents make sense of their everyday caregiving role. Understanding this lived experience is crucial for developing meaningful supports. This qualitative study explored how parents experience supporting a 7- to 12-year-old child with anxiety in daily life. Eight parents participated in in-depth, semi-structured online interviews, analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to develop a detailed understanding of their meaning-making. This paper presents the group experiential theme "Exhausting uncertainty: Parenting as a constant battle" and its four subthemes depicting the challenges of parenting a child with anxiety: (1) "Understanding the unknown", (2) "Anticipating the next move", (3) "Responding to escalations", and (4) "Regrouping for the next battle". Parents described a continual trial-and-error process of interpreting and managing anxiety, characterised by parent-child communication gaps and a lack of clear guidance. While they found small ways to recover amidst daily struggles, they often felt isolated, on edge, and unequipped to respond to escalations. These findings highlight the emotional and practical complexities of parenting a child with anxiety. Supports that are grounded in parents' everyday experiences and acknowledge uncertainty, emotional strain, and diverse family contexts may more effectively meet the needs of both parents and children.
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