Chloe Chessell So, how common is  anxiety and what causes anxiety? So,   anxiety problems are common and they do have a  particularly early age of onset. And in fact,   anxiety problems are the most common mental  health problem among children and young people,   and research has shown that around 6.5%  of children and young people meet criteria   for an anxiety disorder at any given time. And  although in some circumstances anxiety problems   can improve on their own, this isn’t always  the case and anxiety problems can persist   into adolescence and adulthood. And so, it’s  important to ensure that children or young   people and their families, where a young  person’s experiencing anxiety difficulties,   do receive evidence-based support to help  them to overcome that anxiety difficulty. So, what causes anxiety problems? I think  the important thing to say here is that   there is no single cause of anxiety and  anxiety is nobody’s fault, but often,   people might wonder where anxiety might have come  from. We know that anxiety can run in families,   to an extent. Children don’t inherit  anxiety problems, as such, but they   can inherit characteristics that can increase  their likelihood of developing anxiety problems. For example, they might inherit a tendency to  worry. And the extent to which a child or a young   person experiences anxiety is thought to be a  mixture between genetics and the environment. So,   it’s thought to be about one third genetics  and two thirds environmental factors. And   I guess that’s good news, because  although we can’t change genetics,   we can change things in a child or  young person’s environment to help   to – them to alleviate the symptoms of  anxiety that they’ve been experiencing. So, what are the possible environmental factors  that might influence the development of anxiety   in children and young people? So, stressful  life events are thought to be relevant to   the development of anxiety in children and  young people. So, that could be where a young   person’s experienced the death of a close  friend or relative, or perhaps an accident,   like a car accident. We also know that children  and young people learn from others. So,   for example, a child or a young person might  see other people being fearful of dogs and then,   they might learn themselves that perhaps  dogs are something that need to be feared. Children and young people also learn from  other people’s reactions and anxious children,   in particular, are often on the lookout as to how  other people are responding to them in certain   situations. And so, how other people respond  to children can also influence the development   of anxiety. For example, if a child’s approached  by a dog and other people are looking concerned,   they’re asking if the child’s okay, they’re  taking the child out of the situation,   rather than looking calm and relaxed, then again,  that might signal to the child that there’s   something to be feared about dogs. Another  possible cause of anxiety is where children   or young people haven’t had the opportunity to  learn they can cope in challenging situations. And so, there are lots of different factors  that might be relevant to the development of   anxiety problems in children and  young people. But importantly,   there’s no one cause of anxiety, anxiety isn’t  anybody’s fault, and we do know that there are   effective treatments that can help young  people to overcome anxiety difficulties.