Prevention of childhood anxiety disorders: A comparison of the effects of child cognitive-behaviour intervention, parental cognitive-behaviour intervention, and no intervention in a Dutch community sample of at-risk children
Projectomschrijving
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The present project aims to develop and evaluate interventions to prevent childhood anxiety
disorders (AD) in children "at risk" for developing AD. The effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral
(CBT) intervention for parents will be compared with a CBT intervention for children and with no
intervention (natural course) in at risk children. It is expected that the parent intervention is superior
to the child intervention, in case the parents are anxious. In the at risk no intervention group, it is
tested whether parental anxiety is a risk factor for child AD to develop. Furthermore, the
cost-effectiveness of the screening, of intervention versus no intervention, and of the parent- versus
child-based intervention is evaluated. The effectiveness of the screening to detect at risk children will
be investigated, by comparing the natural course of at risk children with the natural course of not at
risk children. Based on a screening for anxiety symptoms of 3000 children aged 8-12, 156 at risk
children will be selected and 52 not at risk children. The at risk children are randomly assigned to
either the parent intervention (n=52), the child intervention (n=52), or no intervention (n=35). The not at
risk children receive no intervention. All children are followed for 2 years, assessments take place
before and after the intervention, six months, 1 year and 2 years after the intervention. The primary
outcome parameter is the number of children who do not develop AD.