Children entering puberty may be experiencing more anxiety than their parents realize, according to a new study.
Starting middle school brings big changes – new schools, heavier workloads, shifting friendships. These changes are easy for parents to see. But alongside them, something less visible may be happening: a rise in anxiety linked to puberty. In a new study led by FIU psychology postdoctoral associate Amanda Baker and published in Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, researchers found that as children move through puberty, they report increasing anxiety while parents' perceptions of their child's anxiety remain relatively unchanged.
As children enter puberty, hormonal changes reshape how their brains work. These changes make them more emotional, more sensitive to what others think and more reactive to social situations and feedback. At the same time kids are becoming more aware of their anxiety, they are spending more time away from parents at sports practices, sleepovers and other activities. This can make it harder for parents to see how much their child is struggling.
"Understanding this is important. These emotional shifts don't happen for no reason," said Baker, a researcher in FIU's Center for Children and Families. "When a child seems to be 'in a mood' it may actually be a sign that something deeper is going on internally, and they could be struggling."
Researchers found that children ages 10 to 13 consistently rated their anxiety higher than their parents did, and the gap widened as they progressed through puberty. The difference was especially pronounced in children with diagnosed anxiety, highlighting the challenge of relying on a single perspective to understand a child's anxiety.
To get a clearer picture, the researchers combined reports from kids, parents and clinicians into a single overall score using a statistical method called Principal Component Analysis.
"Although each of these perspectives brings valuable information, we sometimes want one single metric for anxiety when we want to track it over time or understand anxiety generally, not from any one perspective," said Dana McMakin, co-author of the study and chair of FIU's Department of Psychology. "A PCA score helps us to have this unified metric as an option."
The study highlights the need for multi-informant assessment approaches in both research and practice. The differences in anxiety reports can be crucial for understanding a child's internal distress and guiding treatment. McMakin emphasizes identifying anxiety early in children provides an important opportunity for intervention, especially at the cusp of adolescence when mental health risk increases and dynamic development creates opportunities for change.
