NCT00073619

Preventing Anxiety Disorders in Urban Youth

Community Violence and Youth: Preventing Anxiety Disorders

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 200 (actual)
• Sponsor: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 8 Years – 12 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study will determine the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral group therapy program in preventing anxiety disorders in at-risk children exposed to community violence.

Detailed description

Community violence is a major public health problem in low-income, urban communities. The mental health impact of living in a violent community is significant, particularly for children. Community violence exposure is associated with various symptoms of anxiety. Unfortunately, little research on the prevention of community-related anxiety in youth has been conducted. This study involves a school-based prevention and cognitive behavioral therapy program that will involve predominantly African American children who live in urban areas and are at risk for developing anxiety disorders. Children in this study will be randomly assigned to either an anxiety prevention and early intervention group or a nonintervention group for approximately 3 months. Child, parent, and teacher assessments of anxiety symptoms will be made at the end of the study and at a 6-month follow-up visit.

Conditions

• Anxiety Disorders

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Cognitive-behavioral group therapy	School-based anxiety preventive intervention (cognitive-behavioral group therapy) originally designed for Australian children that was culturally and contextually modified for inner-city children exposed to community violence. Participants received the weekly intervention and rewards for participating in the assessments.

Timeline

• Start date: 2001-12-01
• Primary completion: 2007-07-01
• Completion: 2011-07-01
• First posted: 2003-12-03
• Last updated: 2016-06-23

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States