Does Virtual Parental Presence Reduce Preoperative Anxiety in Children

Children undergoing anesthesia are often very frightened by the experience. This can lead to bed wetting, nightmares and stranger anxiety that can last for weeks. Moreover, this can influence their future experiences with anesthesia and surgery. The investigators believe the presence of a parent via video might work better as parental fear is not transferred to the child. The investigators also believe that parents who are coached on how to assist their child during anesthesia will have a better impact. As such the investigators are carrying out this study to assess whether parents who are coached and are present in either video or physical form will be more effective in reducing anxiety at induction of anesthesia.

The investigators' goal in this study is to investigate the effects of virtual parental presence and coaching of parents on anxiety in children at induction of anesthesia. The primary hypothesis is virtual parental presence during induction of anesthesia is superior to physical parental presence during induction of anesthesia in reducing anxiety in children at induction of anesthesia. The secondary hypothesis is that the coaching of parents modulates the effect of physical or video parental presence at induction anesthesia on children's anxiety.