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This study adopted a cumulative risk approach to examine the relations between various domains of risk factors (i.e., social isolation and home confinement, other pandemic-related risk factors, and pre-existing psychosocial risk factors) and carers' and children's mental health during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe. The sample consisted of 1475 carers of 6- to 16-year-old children and adolescents residing in five European countries (Portugal, United Kingdom, Romania, Spain, and The Netherlands) who completed an online survey. The results showed that each of the three domains of adversity accounted for unique variation in carers' and children's mental health outcomes. Also, the results indicated that pre-existing psychosocial risk factors moderated the relationship between pandemic-related risk factors and children and carers' anxiety and between social isolation and confinement and carers' well-being. Simple slopes analysis suggested a stronger relationship between these domains of adversities and mental health outcomes in already more vulnerable families. It is important to consider the implications of social isolation measures and confinement for families' mental health, paying special attention to families with pre-existing psychosocial vulnerabilities., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

This study examined the role of theoretically meaningful mediators of therapeutic change-interpretation bias, perceived control, and coping strategies-in a cognitive-behavioral intervention for anxious youth. This is one of the few studies that examined the change in potential mediator and outcome variables by means of a longitudinal design that included four assessment points: pretreatment, in-treatment, post-treatment, and at 4-months follow-up. Forty-seven 8- to 12-year-old children with a principal DSM-IV diagnosis of anxiety disorder participated in the study. On each assessment point, questionnaires assessing the mediator variables and a standardized anxiety scale were administered to the children. The results showed that perceived control and interpretation bias (but not coping strategies) accounted for a significant proportion in the variability of various types of anxiety symptoms, providing a preliminary support for the notion that these cognitive dimensions' act as mechanisms of therapeutic change in cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxious children.