Selective Prevention for Anxiety and Resilience Promotion: Outcomes of an Anxiety Prevention and Resilience Program with Girls at Risk

Abstract

Introduction: Research has shown that the number of children and adolescents experiencing emotional difficulties such as anxiety is escalating, especially for those groups at risk. Living in an orphanage has been considered a risk factor for delays in an individuals' social, emotional and behavioral development. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Spanish version of the friends program, a cbt-based resilience program, with 57 girls from low socioeconomic status (ses) background that were living in an orphanage. Method: Participants received the program for ten consecutive weeks, and pre-and post-test measures were collected. Measures evaluated participants' anxiety symptoms, level of self-concept, hope, coping skills, and psychosocial difficulties. Social validity was also assessed. Results: Results showed positive changes, including a decrease in anxiety symptoms and psychosocial difficulties, as well as an increase in their proactive coping skills. Several subscales and items of the self-concept and hope outcome measures also reported statistically significant improvements. Conclusions: Participants and parents/caregivers reported that the program was both enjoyable and useful. Implications of the findings and directions for further research are discussed.

Effectiveness, Applications and Limitations of the Program Friends in Pre-School Children: An Integrative Revision

“…All the studies evaluated the reduction of anxiety symptoms, using the following instruments: The Preschool Anxiety Scale -PAS (PAHL; BARRETT, 2010;ZERTUCHE, 2012;DOHL, 2013;ANTICICH et al, 2013;BARRET, FISAK, COOPER, 2015); The Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale -RCMAS (SHORTT; FOX, 2001;SONDEREGGER;XENOS, 2003;GALLEGOS-GUAJARDO et al, 2015). In addition, three articles evaluated the change from clinical to non-clinical anxiety diagnosis through the following standardized clinical interviews: The Anxiety Disorder Interview Schedule for Children (FARRELL; BARRETT; CLAASSENS, 2005; BARRETT; FISAK; COOPER et al 2015); Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children, Adolescents and Parents-DISCAP (SHORTT; FOX, 2001).…”

“…Five articles had an intervention group (GI) and control group (GC) (SHORTT; FOX, 2001;SONDEREGGER;XENOS, 2003;PAHL;BARRETT, 2010;DOHL, 2013;ANTICICH et al, 2013); and the others (ZERTUCHE, 2012;FISAK;COOPER, 2015;GALLEGOS-GUAJARDO et al, 2015) only intervention group.…”

“…While in the treatment the intervention should be offered to reduce or to bring relief to an individual's suffering that already presents a clinical diagnosis, the prevention has for objective to reduce the development probability of a future mental disorder (NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL, 2009). Among the nine analyzed articles, six framed the intervention with the program at prevention level (PAHL; BARRETT, 2010;ZERTUCHE, 2012;DOHL, 2013;ANTICICH et al, 2013;SONDEREGGER;XENOS, 2003;GALLEGOS-GUAJARDO et al, 2015) The National Research Council (2009) uses the term "prevention" for services received by those people that still don't suffer of any discomfort or deficiency to be forewarned. Proposing a prevention classification based on the costs, benefits of the intervention and targeted population.…”

“…Such factors can be biological, psychological or social, in that the subject can be imminent exposed or to elapse along the life. In the revised articles, two researches can be found that are framed in this level of selective intervention (BARRETT; SONDEREGGER; XENOS, 2003;GALLEGOS-GUAJARDO et al, 2015). And lastly, the suitable prevention that are strategies focused in individuals identified as high risk of developing a disorder, since they present signs and minimum symptoms detected in some individual evaluation, but they don't fill out the criteria diagnoses (National Research Council, 2009), of the analyzed articles none of them is framed in this prevention type.…”

“…In order to elucidate the various factors involved in the implementation of the FRIENDS program, Table 2 shows the main variables of each selected study. From the 9 articles analyzed, five (BARRET;SONDERGGER;XENOS, 2003;PAHL;BARRETT, 2010;ZERTUCHE, 2012;DOHL, 2013;ANTICICH et al, 2013) accomplished the intervention in the school enviroment, three articles (SHORTT; SONDEREGGER; FOX, 2001; FARRELL; BARRETT; CLAASSENS, 2005; BARRETT; FISAK; COOPER, 2015) applied the program in psychological clinics, and the last study (GALLEGOS-GUAJARDO et al, 2015) carried out the intervention in a host institution.…”