A federal task force recommends anxiety screenings for kids as young as 8. Here’s what parents need to know.
in April 2022 recommending screening for anxiety in children and adolescents between the ages of 8 and 18. This recommendation—which is still open for public comment—is timely, given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s mental health. The Conversation asked Elana Bernstein, a school psychologist who researches child and adolescent anxiety, to explain the task force’s new draft recommendations and what they might mean for kids, parents and providers.
The opportunity to prevent potentially chronic lifelong mental health conditions through a combination of early identification and evidence-based treatment certainly informed the task force’s recommendation. Untreated anxiety disorders in children result in added burdens to the public health system. So from a cost-benefit perspective, the cost-effectiveness of screening for anxiety and providing preventive treatment is favorable, while, as the task force pointed out, the harms are negligible.
Anxiety is what’s called an internalizing trait, meaning that the symptoms may not be observable to those around the person. This makes accurate identification more challenging, though certainly possible. Therefore, psychologists recommend including the child in the screening process to the degree possible based on age and development.
In both cases, the aim is to reduce symptoms and to prevent lifelong chronic mental health problems. But it is important to note that a screening does not equal a diagnosis. Diagnostic assessment is more in-depth and costs more, while screening is intended to be brief, efficient and cost-effective.
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