Behavioral treatment of social phobia in youth: does parent education training improve the outcome?
Social phobia is one of the most common anxiety disorders in children and adolescents, and it runs a fairly chronic course if left untreated. The goals of the present study were to evaluate if a parent education course would improve the outcome for children with a primary diagnosis of social phobia and if comorbidity at the start of treatment would impair the outcome of the social phobia. A total of 55 children, 8-14 years old, were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: 1) Child is treated, 2) Child is treated and parent participates in the course, or 3) A wait-list for 12 weeks. The treatment consisted of individual exposure and group social skills training based on the Beidel, Turner, and Morris (2000) SET-C. Children and parents were assessed pre-, post-, and at one year follow-up with independent assessor ratings and self-report measures. Results showed that there was no significant difference between the two active treatments and both were better than the wait-list. The treatment effects were maintained or furthered at the follow-up. Comorbidity did not lead to worse outcome of social phobia. Comorbid disorders improved significantly from pre-to post-treatment and from post-to follow-up assessment without being targeted in therapy.
Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Sweden. Electronic address: ost@psychology.su.se.
Lars-Göran
LG
Öst
Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Sweden.
Rio
R
Cederlund
Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Sweden.
Lena
L
Reuterskiöld
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D010290:Parents; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D057566:Self Report; D012919:Social Behavior; D013548:Sweden; D016896:Treatment Outcome
Behavior therapy; Comorbidity; Parent involvement; Social phobia; Youth