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The field of child clinical psychology has increasingly focused on how to assess the occurrence and impact of traumatic events on children with the explicit goal of determining effective and efficient therapeutic techniques for helping children manage the sequelae of such events. This paper provides an overview of the psychological literature in childhood trauma. We address important questions most pertinent to clinicians working with children and families: How many children experience traumatic events? What types of trauma do children most often experience? How should childhood trauma and related outcomes be assessed in clinical practice? What therapeutic interventions are available? What information is yet needed and what challenges do we face? Throughout, we consider biological, individual, and cultural factors and pay particular attention to how innovations in technology and communications hold promise for this field.

Although mild worry is normative, children with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) experience worry that is intense, difficult to control, and impairing. Common worries of children with GAD may relate to perfectionism, performance, social situations, family, community/world events, or health. GAD co-occurs not only with other internalizing disorders (e.g., depression) but also with externalizing problems. A careful, multi-informant assessment is likely to help differentiate GAD from other disorders and also facilitate treatment planning. Research has found support for a number of variables in the etiology and maintenance of GAD including genetic, biological, familial, and environmental influences, cognitive processes, and personality traits and temperamental factors. The course of GAD is characterized by a chronic and episodic wax and wane of symptoms over a fairly long period of time though at least a few treatment approaches are promising. Numerous studies provide support for the use of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) in treating GAD in youth, and preliminary data suggests that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) can also be helpful. The most apparent limitation of the extant literature that is reviewed is the lack of focus on youth with GAD in particular. Future research needs to compare youth with GAD to youth with other types of anxiety disorders.

This paper presents a review of the role that parents play in the ethiology and maintenace of child anxiety and in their treatment and prevention. Some educative patterns, such as rejection and, above all, parents’ excessive over-protection behaviour, have been related to the presence of anxiety in children. In fact, a related issue to take into account would be the presence of any type of anxiety disorder in the parents themselves. As far as the child anxiety treatment and its prevention are concerned, data show that training parents in certain strategies and skills and including them in the intervention programme increase the effectiveness of the treatment outcome. Despite the research conducted in the field, the number of publications is still limited. Thus, further investigation is encouraged.

Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent class of psychiatric disorders (Kessler et al., 2005) and their early onset places individuals at risk for a wide range of subsequent problems (Weissman et al., 1999). Data from the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS) and the National Comorbidity Survey-Replication (NCS-R) were used to investigate the prevalence and correlates of childhood-onset anxiety disorders among U.S.-born whites, U.S.-born Latinos, and foreign-born Latinos. Significant differences in rates of childhood-onset anxiety disorders were found, with foreign-born Latinos reporting the lowest rates. Across all three ethnicity/nativity groups, individuals with childhood-onset anxiety disorders had equal or higher levels of past-year impairment, relative to individuals with adult-onset anxiety disorders. The chronic course associated with childhood-onset anxiety disorders was also revealed to be present regardless of ethnicity and nativity, as indicated by the similarities across groups in the mean number of lifetime disorders and comorbidity rates. Treatment and assessment recommendations are discussed with respect to the findings.

This invited article presents a brief overview of the status of evidence-based psychosocial treatments for anxiety disorders in mainstream and/or Caucasian youth relative to the little data that has accumulated about psychosocial treatments for anxiety disorders in Latino youth. The article describes an emerging culturally prescriptive framework for working with minority youth and a corresponding exposure-based cognitive behavioral treatment program for anxious Mexican-origin youth. Preliminary treatment effect size data from ten treated youth is presented and, to illustrate the application of the program, a case sample of a Mexican-origin child is described. The article concludes with an evaluative summary and directions for future research.

Recent literature reviews reveal a significant growth in the number of clinical trials of psychosocial treatments for ameliorating anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. This paper presents a look ahead toward critical next steps in extending our knowledge and improving the clinical care for the millions of children and families whose lives are impaired by excessive anxiety and fear. Toward this end, we discuss three areas for future research. The first area involves the systematic evaluation of predictors, moderators, and mediators of treatment outcome in order to personalize and augment the effectiveness of current evidence-based treatments. The second area involves examining ways in which current treatments can be extended to new populations (i.e., to those that have been excluded from previous clinical trials), new formats, and to new settings. The third area for future research discusses the need to develop novel interventions (both treatment and prevention) based on emerging evidence from the scientific literature in the fields of developmental psychopathology and neuroscience. Research on the treatment of child anxiety is at an exciting stage and the next generation of studies will likely lead to many innovative and clinically beneficial outcomes.

The relationship between anxiety and drug use is bidirectional: on the one hand, the continued use of a psychoactive substance can produce anxiety symptoms; on the other hand, some anxiety disorders may worsen if the person consumes drugs. There are many different ways of consuming psychoactive substances; therefore it is necessary to bear in mind the psychosocial variables that affect the person who decides to consume psychoactive substances, as well as the motivations that led him to this behavior. There are many reasons for drug use: being accepted by the group, seeking pleasure, escaping from loneliness, seeking new experiences, finding their own identity, therapeutic use, etc. In all cases, the relationship with the social environment is an important factor in explaining the relationship between anxiety and psychoactive substances addiction. It seems logical that having many social resources can protect us from anxiety and drug use. However, some recent social changes, especially those related to technology, can create uncertainty in some people. This uncertainty, associated with low social skills, can lead some people to drug use. From this approach and the results of the latest research, this article deals on the assessment and psychological treatments in anxiety disorders induced by psychoactive substances, looking for a proactive intervention, in terms of psychosocial and educational advancement in prevention of drug use.