Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Anxiety Disorders in Young Children: A Dutch Open Trial of the Fun FRIENDS Program

Evaluating the long-term effects of cognitive behavioural therapy as an early intervention for at-risk anxiety disorders among preschool children in Asia

There are few evaluations of early intervention for the prevention of anxiety disorders in East Asia, and those that exist generally evaluate outcomes to a maximum of 6-12 months. The current study evaluated the long-term effect (5 years) of an anxiety prevention program presented to preschool children and their parents in Japan. Participants for the study were 10 inhibited children 5-6 years old and their parents. The parent's and children's program comprised group sessions of a cognitive-behavioural program. Parents and teachers completed the anxious/depressed, withdrawn and behavioural inhibition at pre-post-intervention and 3-month follow-up. Five years after starting the intervention, participants were invited to a diagnostic interview, Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule (ADIS) to examine a long-term preventive effect of the intervention. The majority of children showed a reduction in anxious/depressed, behavioral inhibition, and approximately half showed reliable change according to parents' and teachers' reports. Moreover, the results indicated that 9 of the 10 children did not met the diagnostic criteria for anxiety disorders. These results suggested that the early intervention had preventive effects because the diagnostic criteria for anxiety disorders were not met in the follow-up assessment conducted five years later.

An Ounce of Prevention: Building resilience and targeting anxiety in young children

BACKGROUND

Anxiety disorders are among the most common psychiatric disorders in childhood and can develop as early as the preschool years. Therefore, providing young children who display early signs of anxiety with skills to prevent the development of later psychopathology is invaluable. The current study evaluates the effectiveness of Fun FRIENDS, an anxiety prevention and resilience program for young children.

METHOD

Fifty-seven kindergartners across three classrooms participated in a 15-week anxiety prevention program and teachers completed a behavioral screening measure and anxiety questionnaire at pre, post, 3 month, and 10-month follow-up assessment points.

RESULTS

Anxiety positively correlated with emotional symptoms, peer difficulties, and total difficulties at pre-intervention. Anxiety symptoms decreased from pre-intervention to follow-up. Additionally, prosocial behaviors improved and moderated the relationship between pre-and post-intervention anxiety symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings yield promising implications regarding the effectiveness of prevention and intervention programs on increasing social emotional skills and reducing anxiety symptoms in young children.