Efficacy of a brief school-based program for selective prevention of childhood anxiety

Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is recognized as an early risk factor for the development of anxiety disorders. This study evaluates whether a brief school-based selective prevention program reduces AS and anxious and depressive symptoms in children and youth. Participants scoring high in AS but without any current psychopathological disorder were selected from a sample of 613 individuals (61% female, 11-17 years old) and randomly assigned to the prevention program (n=47) or to a waiting-list control (WLC) (n=45) group. A normal control (NC) group (n=53) was also included. After treatment, a significant decrease in AS and in anxiety and depressive symptoms were observed in both prevention and WLC groups. Differences between experimental conditions only emerged, partially, at six-month follow-up (FU) with the prevention group (PG) exhibiting significantly lower AS (p.05), and equalling NCs. Although the magnitude of change in the PG is comparable to that reported in previous studies with longer and more complex prevention programs, a parallel reduction in the WLCs suggests that the observed decrease in the short term could be mostly time-linked. Despite this, our results encourage research into brief preventive interventions at an individual level.