Golda Ginsburg, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Psychiatry | University of Connecticut
Farmington, CT, UNITED STATES
Professor with expertise in anxiety in children and psychology.
Biography
Dr. Ginsburg joined the Child Division of the Department of Psychiatry at UConn Health in July 2014. She moved to Connecticut from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where she was professor of Psychiatry. Ginsburg has been developing and evaluating interventions for anxious youth for more than 20 years and is the recipient of numerous grants and awards. She has been the principal investigator or co-PI on several landmark clinical trials funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) for depression, anxiety, and Tourette’s syndrome. Ginsburg received her B.A. from California State University in Northridge, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Vermont. Following a clinical internship at Hutchings Psychiatric Center, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Florida International University in 1995.
Areas of Expertise (5)
Youth
Anxiety in Children
Psychiatry
Anxiety
Mental Health
Education (3)
University of Vermont: Ph.D., Psychology
University of Vermont: M.A., Psychology
California State University, Northridge: B.A., Psychology
Links (2)
Media
Publications:
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Videos:
Audio/Podcasts:
Media Appearances (8)
How to Ease Students’ Academic Anxieties When Learning Speeds Up
Education Week online
2023-05-05
Golda Ginsburg, a professor in child psychiatry at the University of Connecticut who developed the program, spoke with Education Week about how anxiety affects student learning and how teachers can help their students become more resilient.
Generation Agoraphobia
New York Times print
2020-10-16
Even adults have a hard time calibrating the relative safety of any trip into public. How can we expect a seven-year-old to know? “For younger kids, it’s hard to do a risk analysis,” said Golda S. Ginsburg, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut. “They’re just not cognitively mature enough. And children who struggle with anxiety can overestimate the risk and underestimate their own coping skills.” “For some kids afraid of leaving the house,” she added, “they are terrified there is nothing that they can do to be safe or reduce their anxiety — so they stay indoors.”
How to Handle Separation Anxiety Meltdowns in Kids
New York Times print
2020-08-20
There are also evidence-based strategies that all parents can use to try to prevent or de-escalate meltdowns that come from separation anxiety. When children are calm enough to listen, validate their feelings by acknowledging that you understand why the situation makes them feel scared, and encourage them to practice being brave and trying an activity on their own. This strategy takes time and patience, but it’s more effective in the long term than giving in and trying to stay within children’s eyesight or allowing them to avoid situations involving separation, said Golda Ginsburg, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.
The Anxious Child and the Crisis of Modern Parenting
The Atlantic print
2020-04-14
In 2015, Golda S. Ginsburg of the University of Connecticut published the results of the first American study specifically focused on preventing anxiety disorders in children of anxious parents. The intervention, which involved giving anxious parents and their children eight weekly sessions with a therapist who taught them about anxiety, had dramatic effects: Within a year, only 5 percent of the children whose families had received the intervention met the criteria for an anxiety disorder, compared with 31 percent of children in a control group.
Anxiety in Children: When to Worry About Your Child's Worries
Parents Magazine online
2020-02-25
There's a family connection too: Kids with an anxious parent are up to seven times more likely to have an anxiety disorder compared with kids whose parents are not anxious. The link is both biological and behavioral, explains Golda Ginsburg, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut. "There is an inherited risk, but when parents are overprotective or model their own fears, they increase their child's risk of anxiety."
Most children with anxiety relapse, regardless of treatment
Medscape
2017-04-18
"These data teach us that we need to regularly assess our patients for relapse, because the largest segment [of those treated] relapse, and we need a better mechanism to capture that before they relapse," said Golda Ginsburg, PhD, of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, in Farmington...
Therapy could prevent healthy kids from developing anxiety disorders
Quartz
2015-09-28
The researchers, led by Golda Ginsburg at the University of Connecticut, worked with 136 families where at least one parent had an anxiety disorder and one child, aged 6 to 13 years old, did not...
Breaking the anxiety cycle
Science Daily
2015-09-25
Each of these parents sought help because they struggle with anxiety, and want to prevent their children from suffering the same way. Children of anxious parents are at increased risk for developing the disorder. Yet that does not need to be the case, according to new research by UConn Health psychiatrist Golda Ginsburg...
Event Appearances (3)
Examining the Relative Importance of Parental Attachment, Anxiety and Anxiety-Promoting Parenting Behaviors as Predictors of Child Anxiety Severity
Anxiety Disorders of America (ADAA) Annual Conference Arlington, VA
2012-01-01
Comparing Anxious Mothers and Fathers on Parenting Behaviors and Family Variables
32nd Annual Anxiety Disorders Association of America Conference Arlington, VA
2012-01-01
Expressed Emotion in Anxious Parents: Exploring Parent, Child, and Family Predictors
32nd Annual Anxiety Disorders Association of America Conference Arlington, VA
2012-01-01
Articles (5)
Pediatric Anxiety Disorders: A Cost of Illness Analysis
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology2020 Few studies provide information about the clinical correlates of economic costs in pediatric anxiety disorders. This study uses baseline data from a randomized trial involving 209 children and adolescents with clinical anxiety to examine clinical and demographic correlates of direct and indirect costs. Measured costs included the direct costs of mental health services and the indirect costs resulting from children’s missed school and parents’ missed work.
School-Based Treatment for Anxiety Research Study (STARS): a Randomized Controlled Effectiveness Trial
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology2020 The current study compared the effectiveness of a school-clinician administered cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) to treatment as usual (TAU) at post-treatment (i.e., after 12 weeks) and at a 1 year follow-up. Sixty-two school-based clinicians (37 in CBT; 25 in TAU) and 216 students (148 students in CBT; 68 in TAU) participated. Students were ages 6–18 (mean age 10.87; 64% Caucasian & 29% African American; 48.6% female) and all met DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for a primary anxiety disorder. Independent evaluators (IEs) assessed clinical improvement, global functioning, and loss of anxiety diagnoses; children and parents completed measures of anxiety symptoms.
Establishing Clinical Cutoffs for Response and Remission on the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED)
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent PsychiatryNicole E Caporino, Dara Sakolsky, Douglas M Brodman, Joseph F McGuire, John Piacentini, Tara S Peris, Golda S Ginsburg, John T Walkup, Satish Iyengar, Philip C Kendall, Boris Birmaher
2017 To determine optimal percent reduction and raw score cutoffs on the parent- and child-report Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) for predicting treatment response and remission among youth with anxiety disorders.
A School Nurse-Delivered Intervention for Anxious Children: An Open Trial
School Mental HealthMichela A Muggeo, Catherine E Stewart, Kelly L Drake, Golda S Ginsburg
2017 Anxiety disorders are common in children and severely impair their functioning. Because a hallmark symptom of anxiety is somatic complaints, anxious youth often seek help from their school nurse. Thus, school nurses are in an ideal position to identify anxious children and intervene early. This study assessed the feasibility of a brief nurse-administered intervention (CALM—Child Anxiety Learning Modules) based on cognitive behavioral strategies to reduce anxiety symptoms and improve academic functioning.
Social Interpretation Bias in Children and Adolescents with Anxiety Disorders: Psychometric Examination of the Self-report of Ambiguous Social Situations for Youth (SASSY) Scale Authors
Child & Youth Care ForumAraceli Gonzalez, Michelle Rozenman, Audra K Langley, Philip C Kendall, Golda S Ginsburg, Scott Compton, John T Walkup, Boris Birmaher, Anne Marie Albano, John Piacentini
2017 This study examined the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Self-report of Ambiguous Social Situations for Youth (SASSY) scale, a self-report measure developed to assess interpretation bias in youth.
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