Cited by 79Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesChild Therapy and Development

The feelings club: randomized controlled evaluation of school-based CBT for anxious or depressive symptoms

Open access
Manassis, Katharina, Wilansky-Traynor, Pamela, Farzan, Nas, Kleiman, Valery, Parker, Kevin, Sanford, Mark·2010·Depression and Anxiety

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Children with anxious or depressive symptoms are at risk of developing internalizing disorders and their attendant morbidity. To prevent these outcomes, school-based cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been developed, but few studies include active control conditions. We evaluated a preventive CBT program targeting internalizing symptoms relative to an activity contrast condition post-intervention and at 1-year follow-up. METHODS: One thousand one hundred and thirty-nine children from Grades 3-6 from a diverse sample of schools, were screened with the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children and Children's Depression Inventory. Those with t>60 on either measure were offered participation in a randomized 12-week trial, school-based group CBT versus a structured after-school activity group of equal duration. We explored several therapeutic elements as potential predictors of change. RESULTS: One hundred and forty-eight children participated (84 boys, 64 girls; 78 CBT, 70 contrast; 57% Caucasian) and 145 completed the program. Self-reported anxious and depressive symptoms decreased significantly over time (η(2)=.15 and .133, respectively), with no group by time interaction. There was a trend toward fewer children meeting diagnostic criteria for an anxiety disorder on the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule at 1-year post-CBT than post-contrast (6/76 versus 12/69). Positive reinforcement of child behavior was associated with change in anxiety symptoms; checking homework was understood with change in depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that children with internalizing symptoms may benefit from both school-based CBT and structured activity programs. Replication, longer follow-up, and further studies of therapeutic elements in child CBT are indicated. ISRCTN Registry identifier: ISRCTN88858028, url: http://www.controlled-trials.com/.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1002/da.20724

Cites

36 of 36 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 37 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Boyle MH, Offord DR, Hofmann HG, et al. Canada child health study. I. Methodology. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1987;44:826-831.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Manassis, K., Wilansky-Traynor, P., Farzan, N., Kleiman, V., Parker, K., & Sanford, M.
Affiliations
  • Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CA)
  • Queen's University (CA)
Corresponding author
Manassis, Katharina
Venue
Depression and Anxiety
Published
2010-07-02
Volume
27
Issue
10
Pages
945-952
ISSN
1091-4269 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W1980965162
Cited by
79
References
37
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 2
FWCI
5.26
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Depression and Anxiety (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Therapy and Development
Keywords
childhood anxiety, childhood depression, internalizing problems, prevention, group cognitive behavioral therapy, active control, predictors of change, positive reinforcement, homework checking
MeSH terms
Anxiety, Anxiety Disorders, Canada, Child, Child Behavior, Depression, Depressive Disorder, Emotions, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Male, Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Psychotherapy, Group, Schools, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review