NCT07067320

Bibliotherapy Combined With Games to Reduce Fear of the Dark in Young Children

Efficacy of Bibliotherapy Combined With Games to Reduce Fear of the Dark in Young Children: Results From a Clinical Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 39 (actual)
• Sponsor: Universidad Miguel Hernandez de Elche · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 3 Years – 8 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Intense fear of the dark is a common issue among children, which can interfere with their daily functioning at family, social, and academic levels. This study aims to analyse the effectiveness of a psychotherapeutic intervention based on bibliotherapy combined with play to overcome the fear of the dark in children between 4 and 8 years old. A total of 38 children participated, who were assigned to the experimental and control conditions on the waiting list. The bibliotherapy intervention in the experimental condition involved reading a book and playing the games proposed in each chapter. The intervention was applied by parents at home with their children (during 4-5 weeks) and contained cognitive-behavioural techniques, such as gradual in vivo exposure, relaxation techniques, modelling and positive reinforcement, among others. It is expected that children's nighttime fears will decrease significantly and there will be significant improvements in nighttime behaviour.

Conditions

• Bibliotherapy
• Fear of the Dark
• Nighttime Fears

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Bibliotherapy combined with games to overcome fear of the dark	Bibliotherapy combined with games, applied by parents at home. Treatment based on cognitive-behavioural techniques. Duration: 4-5 weeks. Experimental group recived this bibliotherapeutic intervention.

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-04-24
• Primary completion: 2024-10-18
• Completion: 2024-10-18
• First posted: 2025-07-16
• Last updated: 2025-07-16

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Spain