Intensive Group-Based CBT for Child Social Phobia: A Pilot Study☆
Section snippets
Participants
Participants were 40 children (15 male, 25 female) aged 7 to 12 years (M = 9.43, SD = 1.48) with a primary clinical diagnosis of SP, and at least one of their parents. Eighty-five percent of children were born in Australia, 7.5% in the United Kingdom, 2.5% in France, 2.5% in Hong Kong, and 2.5% in the United States of America. The majority of children (80%) lived with both biological parents, 12.5% lived with their mother, 5% with their mother and step-father, and 2.5% reported other living
Pretreatment Comparisons
In order to assess for any preexisting differences between the treatment and waitlist groups, ANOVAs were used to compare the groups on age and number of anxiety disorders, a chi-square analysis was used to assess for gender differences, and a series of three MANOVAs were used to assess for potential group differences on (a) CSR and CGAS, (b) child questionnaire measures, and (c) parent questionnaire measures. No significant differences between conditions were found for child age, F(1, 38) =
Discussion
This study sought to investigate the efficacy of an intensive CBT group treatment for child SP comprising a series of four separate 3-hour group sessions conducted over 15 days. The results for the primary outcome measures supported the hypotheses. At 12 weeks postbaseline assessment, significantly more children in the treatment compared to the waitlist group had lost their SP diagnosis and all anxiety diagnoses. Indeed, 52.4% of the treatment group compared to 15.8% of the waitlist group were
Conflict of Interest Statement
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
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2016, Journal of Anxiety DisordersCitation Excerpt :This alternate format stems from the work of Öst (1989), and later Ollendick and Öst (Ollendick et al., 2009) who developed the one session treatment (OST) approach for specific phobia in adults and children. A similar approach has also been piloted for the treatment of social phobia in children (Donovan, Cobham, Waters, & Occhipinti, 2015; Gallagher, Rabian, & McCloskey, 2004) providing further support for the feasibility and effectiveness of brief, intensive 3-h exposure sessions with children. The basis for the approach is that concentrated, prolonged exposure may provide greater opportunities for the extinction of fear through more continuous exposure to feared stimulus, and thus allowing for greater consolidation of learning (Farrell & Milliner, 2015).
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The authors would like to thank Griffith University who funded this research under their New Researcher Grant Scheme. The sponsors were not involved in data collection, analysis or interpretation; the writing of the report; or the decision to submit the article for publication.