None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
The overarching goal of this research is to develop and evaluate a digital exposure-focused intervention (the Courage Quest intervention) for children aged 8 to 12 years with one or more anxiety disorders. We are aiming to answer the following research question: Does the Courage Quest intervention reduce high levels of anxiety symptoms and result in greater remission of anxiety disorders for children aged 8 to 12 years? We aim to evaluate this through a pilot case series intervention study. The “Courage Quest” intervention will be developed as a parent guided intervention with therapist support. The intervention will be pilot tested using a case series intervention design, the outcomes from which will refine the intervention. The study hypothesis is that there will be clinically significant reductions in children’s anxiety symptoms and disorders (parent and child reported) after completion of the intervention.
Interventions
The Courage Quest intervention is a 10-week digital intervention that aims to equip children and their parents with strategies to overcome child anxiety. It will take the form of a web- and mobile-based app. Parents will complete a training module (approx 15-20 mins) within the Courage Quest intervention to familiarise themselves with the app and activities. The training module comprises information about the following topics: program overview, what anxiety is, what causes anxiety, how avoidance makes it harder to reduce anxiety, signs, and symptoms of anxiety, using rewards to motivate children to continue/finish the intervention, and the importance of practising graded exposure activities. This training module must be completed before parents can access the intervention content. Both parents and children will then access the intervention content which includes the core strategies of psychoeducation (e.g., learning about anxiety) and graded exposure (e.g., facing fears and worries gradually). The content will be delivered through weekly modules over a 10-week period ( 20 minutes to 1 hour per week). The parent and child complete the content together on a device (e.g., laptop or tablet – device to be decided through stakeholder engagement and IT requirements). The content will be delivered in the form of videos, brief text with auditory explanations, and examples. The child and parent will be presented with activities and “digital worksheets” to complete online. Participants will have 1 week to complete weekly modules. Adherence will be monitored on a weekly basis via website usage data. Therapist support will also be provided to parents for 3 x 20-minute telephone/telehealth conversations to problem solve any difficulties they may be experiencing with the program. This includes helping parents to guide their children in setting up rewards, entering worries and goals, creating activities for their graded exposure practices, and doing the graded exposure practice activities. These support sessions will be scheduled in at a time convenient to the parent, roughly after the first, fifth, and eighth weeks. These therapist support sessions will be completed over Zoom and video- and audio-recorded and transcribed so that the research team can ensure the integrity and consistency of the therapist support sessions.
Sponsors
University of New South Wales
Study design
Allocation
Non-randomised trial
Primary purpose
Treatment
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
8 Years to 12 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
• Child aged 8 to 12 years • Child diagnosed with one or more anxiety disorders and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder (as determined on the KSADS-COMP) • Capacity to answer questions independently or with assistance if needed
Exclusion criteria
• Child has a diagnosis of major depression (as determined by the KSADS-COMP) • Child has a primary oppositional defiant disorder, or conduct disorder diagnosis that is equal to or greater than their anxiety disorder severity (as determined by the KSADS-COMP) • Child has a primary attention deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnosis that is greater than their anxiety disorder severity (as determined by the KSADS-COMP) • Child has a diagnosed intellectual disability (as determined through parent self-report) • Child is currently receiving CBT-based psychological therapy for anxiety (other than school counsellor support), i.e., seeing a psychologist for anxiety or using a CBT-based program (e.g., Cool Kids or BRAVE) for anxiety (as determined through parent self-report). Note: child will be eligible if they are receiving other types of (i.e., non-CBT-based) psychological treatment • Child is currently prescribed medication for anxiety (as determined through parent self-report). • Child is reported to have life-threating suicidal ideation and/or had serious suicidal ideation in the last month (as determined through parent self-report). A clinician (Dr Francis, Dr Sicouri, Dr Aji, Dr Chen, or Prof Hudson) will complete a risk assessment follow-up with parents. This follow-up will occur via telephone within 72 hours of the self-report.
Outcome results
None listed