Lay Kpaw, “Parental Avoidance and Distress Related to Specific Phobia Intervention with Children with Williams Syndrome”
Mentor: Bonita Klein-Tasman, Psychology
Poster #112
Children with Williams syndrome (WS) are known to have a high rate of fear, with 53.4% diagnosed with specific phobias (SP) (Leyfer et al., 2006). Recently, a study by Young and colleagues (2023) found a play- and humor-infused exposure intervention to be effective in improving tolerance of and even interaction with feared stimuli for some children with WS. This case study aims to investigate parental avoidance and distress related to their child’s SP of hair brushing (the primary focus during the intervention sessions), certain types of music, and the sound of other people laughing. One four-year-old female diagnosed with WS participated in the intervention. Parents were administered a semi-structured interview which incorporates the Specific Phobias module of the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule – Parent (ADIS-IV-P; Silverman & Albano, 2004), to collect ratings of parental avoidance and distress at weekly check in, and pre- and post- intervention. Significant improvement was defined as a decrease of two or more points from pre-intervention to either post-intervention timepoint. Avoidance ratings reflect both parents’ consensus while distress ratings only reflect the mother’s ratings. Regarding parental avoidance, a significant improvement was observed related to hair brushing and other people laughing, while no change was observed related to certain types of music. Regarding parental distress, a significant improvement was observed related to hair brushing, while certain types of music and other people laughing demonstrated no change. Limitation includes short duration of the intervention; future research with an extended intervention length may result in greater reduction and improvement of parental avoidance and distress. Overall, findings suggest that participating in the intervention may benefit parents by helping them engage less in avoidant behaviors and feel less distress when faced with their child’s SP.