Treatment of Adolescent Panic Disorder: A Nonrandomized Comparison of Intensive Versus Weekly CBT

This study compared the relative efficacy of intensive versus weekly panic control treatment (PCT) for adolescent panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDA). Twenty-six adolescents participated in weekly sessions and 25 received intensive treatment involving daily sessions. Both groups demonstrated significant and comparable reductions in panic disorder severity and general anxiety symptoms, which maintained over time. Participants receiving weekly treatment showed significant decreases in depressive symptoms, whereas those in the intensive program reported no change. Findings support the efficacy of the intensive approach for adolescent PDA, but suggest that adolescents receiving intensive treatment may benefit from a brief course of additional weekly sessions.     

Combined Individual Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Parent Training for Childhood Depression: 2- to 3-Year Follow-Up

Fourteen children with significant depressive symptoms from an open clinical trial of Primary and Secondary Control Enhancement Training augmented with Caregiver–Child Relationship Enhancement Training, participated in a 2- to 3-year follow-up assessment. The results suggested that the significant decreases in depressive symptoms observed at posttreatment were maintained at 2- to 3-year follow-up. Mothers' reports of significant improvement of child psychosocial functioning were also maintained, providing social validation of the effects. Pretreatment child-rated mother-child relations predicted depressive symptoms at 2- to 3-year follow-up. These long-term data support the use of the combined intervention and suggest the need for further research on caregiver involvement in treatment.     

Group Cognitive Behavioral Treatment for Parents and Children At-Risk for Physical Abuse: An Initial Study

To compare the relative efficacy of two types of group cognitive-behavioral therapy for treating the traumatized child and at-risk or offending parent in cases of child physical abuse (CPA), 24 parents and their children were treated with Combined Parent-Child Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CPC-CBT) and 20 parents were treated with Parent-Only CBT. Outcome measures assessing children's emotional and behavioral functioning and parents' parenting skills were administered to both parent and child participants before treatment, after 15 sessions of treatment, and 3 months after the completion of treatment. A series of correlated t tests and analyses of covariance were used to compare the scores on the outcome measures. The children and parents in the CPC-CBT group demonstrated greater improvements in total posttraumatic symptoms and positive parenting skills, respectively, compared to those who participated in the Parent-Only CBT group. The parents in the Parent-Only CBT group reported using less corporal punishment to manage their children's behavior at posttest than the parents in the CPC-CBT group. The differential benefits of including the child in treatment are discussed.     

Positive Affective Priming: A Behavioral Technique to Facilitate Therapeutic Engagement by Families,Caregivers, and Teachers

Affective priming is a technique used in experimental psychology to investigate the organization of emotional schemata not fully available to conscious awareness. The presentation of stimuli (the prime) with strong positive emotional valence alters the accessibility of positive stimuli within the individual's emotionally encoded cognitive system. By altering the valence of internal stimuli, it offers a method for influencing families, caregivers, and teachers serving as mediators in child behavior therapy. The need for priming is greatest where adults involved in therapy as agents of child behavior change have such negative feelings toward the targeted client, or to the therapeutic context, that acceptance and engagement with therapy are compromised. Examples of how positive affective priming might be used clinically are provided.     

Parent-Child Interactions in Anxious Families

A considerable amount of research has examined factors associated with the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders in children. The familial nature of anxiety has been well-established, with genetic studies showing that approximately 30% of the variance is accounted for by genetic factors. Research into the family environment documents behavioral differences in interactions between non-anxious parent-child and anxious parent-child dyads, including less granting of autonomy, and parental withdrawal and disengagement. Recent theoretical work in the field of anxiety suggests that attachment models and coercive operant patterns could create a bi-directional coercive interaction pattern, similar to that seen in interactions of parents and aggressive children. The current study investigated parent and child behaviors coded from interaction tasks across four groups based on anxiety status: anxious parent/anxious child, non-anxious parent/anxious child, anxious parent/non-anxious child, and non-anxious parent/non-anxious child to empirically examine hypothesized interactive patterns. The study sample consisted of 158 parent-child (ages 3–12 years) dyads. Results support an interaction between parent and child anxiety on behavior within dyads. The current study provides an important step in identifying processes linked to familial anxiety.     

Use of an Antecedent Intervention to Decrease Vocal Stereotypy of a Student With Autism in the General Education Classroom

This study examined the use of an antecedent-based intervention to reduce the vocal stereotypy of a student diagnosed with Autism within the general education classroom. The student displayed frequent nonfunctional speech and disruptive vocal sounds. An antecedent-based intervention, involving the use of qualitatively different cards—to cue the student when it was appropriate or inappropriate to engage in vocal stereotypy—was designed and implemented. An adaptive alternating treatment design was utilized and conditions were randomized and counterbalanced across treatment sessions. Data on vocal stereotypy were collected using partial interval recording. The results indicated the participant was successful in discriminating between cues and decreased stereotypy during intervention compared to baseline conditions. Similar findings were found when the intervention was implemented across a second school setting.     

Parental Emotion Coaching: Associations With Self-Regulation in Aggressive/Rejected and Low Aggressive/Popular Children

This study investigated associations between maternal and paternal emotion coaching and the self-regulation skills of kindergarten and first-grade children. Participants were 54 children categorized as either aggressive/rejected or low aggressive/popular by peer reports. Findings indicated a statistical trend for fathers of low aggressive/popular children to engage in more emotion coaching than fathers of aggressive/rejected children. Paternal emotion coaching accounted for significant variance in children's regulation of attention. Maternal emotion coaching moderated the relation between children's status and regulation of emotion. Findings suggest that interventions focused on parental emotion coaching may prove beneficial for increasing the self-regulation and attention skills of children with social and conduct problems.