Coping cat program for anxious children

Child Anxiety Tales. Coping Cat Global Network. Symptom Checker Find out whether your child may be suffering from excessive stress or anxiety by answering a few simple questions. Use the Symptom Checker Find full features in. Click to find more online referral resources. About Us. Understanding Anxiety Separation Anxiety Disorder It is common for toddlers through preschool-aged children to experience anxiety upon separation from their parents, as displayed by crying or clinging behavior. Usually, toddlers and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Generalized anxiety disorder GAD , previously called Overanxious Disorder, is characterized by chronic, excessive worry about events or activities, such as everyday events, health, Social Anxiety Disorder Social anxiety disorder, also known as social phobia, is characterized by an intense, persistent, and excessive fear of negative evaluation by others.

Youth with social anxiety disor Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia Panic attacks consist of a period of intense fear or discomfort during which at least four of the following symptoms develop abruptly and peak within 10 minutes: palpitations, sweati Specific Phobia — Situational Type Specific Phobia, is characterized by chronic, excessive fear related to exposure to specific objects or situations.

Youth with Specific Phobia tend to actively avoid direct contact w Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Obsessive-compulsive disorder OCD is characterized by unwanted, intrusive thoughts obsessions , which often compel sufferers to repeatedly perform ritualistic behaviors or routine The 10 articles chosen for Coping Cat are listed below:. Kendall, P. Treating anxiety disorders in children: Results of a randomized clinical trial.

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 62 1 , Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial Number of Participants: Summary: To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations Children were randomly assigned to receive a cognitive-behavioral therapy [now called Coping Cat ] or to a wait-list control group.

Treatment gains were maintained at one year. Long-term follow-up of a cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety-disordered youth. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64 4 , Summary: To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations Note: This study uses the same sample as Kendall Participants were clients who had completed cognitive-behavioral therapy for an anxiety disorder [now called Coping Cat ] at least 2 years prior to this follow-up.

Self-report assessment s were mailed to participants and phone interviews were conducted with parents. Therapeutic gains were maintained according to measures of anxiety, self-reported anxious self-talk, and self-reported depression. The authors note that there was no control group for this analysis because the entire original wait-list group had received treatment.

Length of postintervention follow-up: years intervention only. Therapy for youths with anxiety disorders: A second randomized clinical trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 65 3 , Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial Number of Participants: 94 children.

Summary: To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations Children were randomly assigned to receive cognitive-behavioral therapy [now called Coping Cat ] or to an 8-week wait-list group. Children were reassessed at posttreatment and at 1-year posttreatment.

Gains were maintained at the 1-year follow-up. Limitations include small sample size, the waiting-list duration was not identical to the duration of treatment, and reliance on self-reported measures.

Child anxiety treatment: Outcomes in adolescence and impact on substance abuse and depression at 7. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 72 2 , Summary: To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations Note: This study is a long-term follow-up of the sample used in Kendall et al.

This report includes those participants originally randomly assigned to the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy CBT condition Coping Cat and also wait-listed children who received Coping Cat after the conclusion of the initial study period. Results showed that the majority of participants maintained treatment gains with regard to anxiety.

Those who had been successfully treated in the initial study also reported fewer problems with substance abuse in the long-term follow-up.

Limitations include the lack of a comparison group and small sample size. Length of postintervention follow-up: 5. Flannery-Schroeder, E. Group and individual cognitive-behavioral treatments for youth with anxiety disorders: 1-year follow-up.

Cognitive Therapy and Research, 29 2 , Limitations include small sample size and reliance on self-reported measures. Cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety disordered youth: A randomized clinical trial evaluating child and family modalities. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76 2 , Improvements were maintained at one year. Children whose parents also had an anxiety disorder showed greater improvement in the FESA condition.

Limitations include relatively small sample size and reliance on self-reported measures. Pre-treatment Comparability Pre-treatment group differences were assessed using chi-square and t-tests. Table 2 Pre-treatment comparability across stratification variables. Treatment Adherence In order to evaluate therapist adherence to the Coping Cat program session goals, all sessions were videotaped.

Figure 2. Table 3 Means and standard deviations for outcome measures. Discussion Given the high rates of co-occurring anxiety disorders in children with ASD, finding efficacious treatments for this population has been an area of recent interest. Clinical Implications Results of this pilot study can be taken as a first step in providing evidence that a modified version of the Coping Cat program may be a feasible and effective intervention package for reducing clinically significant levels of anxiety in children with high-functioning ASD.

Limitations and Future Research Despite the significant contribution that this pilot study makes to the current literature on effective interventions for children with ASD and anxiety, several important limitations warrant discussion. Cognitive behavioral therapy for children and adolescents with anxiety disorders: Clinical research advances.

International Review of Psychiatry. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Washington, D. C: Text Revision. Cognitive behavior therapy for people with Asperger syndrome. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy. Family treatment of childhood anxiety: A controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

Family enhancement of cognitive style in anxious and aggressive children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. Brief report: Theory of mind in high-functioning children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Social skills deficits and anxiety in high-functioning adolescents with autism spectrum disorders.

Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities. The development of social anxiety in adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Treating anxiety disorders in children with high functioning autism spectrum disorders: A controlled trial.

From Bayes through marginal utility to effect sizes: A guide to understanding the clinical and statistical significance of the results of autism research findings. Anxiety in adolescents with Asperger syndrome: Negative thoughts, behavioral problems, and life interference.

Behavior Research Methods. Anxiety in high-functioning children with autism. Levels of anxiety and sources of stress in adults with autism. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities. The role of age and verbal ability in the theory of mind task performance of subjects with autism. Child Development. The weak coherence account: Detail-focused cognitive style in autism spectrum disorders.

Expanding horizons: Adapting manual-based treatments for anxious children with comorbid diagnoses. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice. Autistic disturbances of affective content. Nervous Child. Treating anxiety disorders in children: Results of a randomized clinical trial.

Therapy for youths with anxiety disorders: A second randomized clinical trial. Cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxious youth: Therapist manual. Ardmore, PA: Workbook Publishing; a. The Coping Cat Program Workbook.

Ardmore, PA: Workbook Publishing; b. Child anxiety treatment: Outcomes in adolescence and impact on substance use and depression at 7. Long-term follow-up of a cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety-disordered youth. The prevalence of anxiety and mood problems among children with autism and Asperger syndrome. Caution regarding the use of pilot studies to guide power calculations for study proposals. Archives of General Psychiatry. Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule. Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services; Social attribution processes and comorbid psychiatric symptoms in children with Asperger syndrome.

Behavior Research and Therapy. Empirically supported treatments for children with phobic and anxiety disorders: Current status. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology.

Effects of cognitive-behavioural therapy on anxiety for children with high-functioning autistic spectrum disorders. Singapore Medical Journal. Children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders and co-occurring anxiety symptoms: Implications for assessment and treatment.

Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing. Cognitive-behavioral group treatment for anxiety symptoms in children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders: A pilot study. Autism Diagnostic Interview- Revised. New York: Oxford University Press; A randomised controlled trial of a CBT intervention for anxiety in children with Asperger syndrome. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. A measure of anxiety symptoms among children. Anxiety Disorders. Ethnicity and gender in relation to adaptive functioning, diagnostic status, and treatment outcome in children from an anxiety clinic.

Journal of Anxiety Disorders. Update on advances in assessment and cognitive-behavioral treatment of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents.