Developmental Differences in Universal Preventive Intervention for Child Anxiety

Abstract

We compared the effects of a universal school-based preventive intervention for child anxiety at two developmental stages. Six hundred and ninety-two participants enrolled in either grade 6 (n = 293), children aged between 9 and 10 years, or grade 9 (n = 399), children aged between 14 and 16 years, were allocated to either a school-based cognitive-behavioural intervention or to a monitoring group. Participants completed the Spence Child Anxiety Scale and the Child Depression Inventory and were stratified into low-, moderate- and high-risk groups based on their anxiety scores at the start of the study. The effects of the prevention programme were evaluated at post- and 12-month follow-up intervals. Post-study results indicated significant reductions in anxiety (p < .001) and depression (p < .05) across high- and moderate-risk groups in both the intervention and monitoring conditions. This trend was evident at 12-month follow-up, however, reductions in anxiety were greater in the intervention condition (p < .05). At post assessment, grade 6 participants showed significant changes in anxiety compared with grade 9 participants (p < .001), although both primary and secondary school participants showed equal reductions in anxiety at 12-month follow-up. Overall, findings suggest that universal intervention is potentially successful in reducing anxiety symptoms in children. Primary school children reported the greatest changes in anxiety symptoms, suggesting that earlier preventive intervention is potentially more advantageous than later intervention in adolescence. The implications and limitations of this study and directions for future research are discussed.