Anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, and posttraumatic stress disorders constitute the most prevalent group of mental disorders, collectively affecting up to 30% of individuals at some point in their lives.¹ These conditions contribute significantly to the global burden of disease and disability-adjusted life-years.²

This study evaluated the long-term effectiveness of the FRIENDS Program in reducing anxiety and depression in a sample of children from Grade 6 and Grade 9 in comparison to a control condition. Longitudinal data for Lock and Barrett's (2003) universal prevention trial is presented, along with data from 12-month follow-up to 24- and 36-month follow-up. Results of this study indicate that intervention reductions in anxiety reported in Lock and Barrett were maintained for students in Grade 6, with the intervention group reporting significantly lower ratings of anxiety at long-term follow-up. A significant Time × Intervention Group × Gender Effect on Anxiety was found, with girls in the intervention group reporting significantly lower anxiety at 12-month and 24-month follow-up but not at 36-month follow-up in comparison to the control condition. Results demonstrated a prevention effect with significantly fewer high-risk students at 36-month follow-up in the intervention condition than in the control condition...

Child and adolescent obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic and debilitating condition associated with a wide range of impairments. This article briefly discusses the phenomenology of OCD, the theory underlying current treatment approaches, and the extant psychosocial treatment literature for child and adolescent OCD relative to the criteria for classification as an evidence-based intervention. Studies were evaluated for methodological rigor according to the classification system of Nathan and Gorman ( 2002 Nathan , P. E. , & Gorman , J. M. ( 2002 ). A guide to treatments that work () , 2nd ed. . New York : Oxford University Press . [Google Scholar] ) and then were assessed relative to the criteria for evidence-based treatments specified by Chambless et al. ( 1998 Chambless , D. L. , Baker , M. J. , Baucom , D. H. , Beutler , L. E. , et al. . ( 1998 ). Update on empirically validated therapies, II . The Clinical Psychologist , 51 , 3 – 16 . [Google Scholar] ), Chambless et al. ( 1996 Chambless , D. L. , Sanderson , W. C. , Shoham , V. , Johnson , S. B. , Pope , K. S. , et al. . ( 1996 ). An update on empirically validated therapies . The Clinical Psychologist , 49 , 5 – 18 . [Google Scholar] ), and Chambless and Hollon ( 1998 Chambless , D. L. , & Hollon , S. D. ( 1998 ). Defining empirically supported therapies . Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology , 66 , 7 – 18 . [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar] ). Results from exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) trials with children and adolescents have been consistent, with remission rates of the disorder ranging from 40% to 85% across studies. Findings from this review indicate that individual exposure-based CBT for child and adolescent OCD can be considered as a probably efficacious treatment. CBT delivered in a family-focused individual or group format can be considered as a possibly efficacious treatment. Moderators, mediators, and predictors of treatment outcome are discussed, as are implications and generalizability of extant findings to real-world settings. We conclude with recommendations for best practice and future research directions.

We compared the effects of a universal school-based preventive intervention for child anxiety at two developmental stages. Six hundred and ninety-two participants enrolled in either grade 6 ( n = 293), children aged between 9 and 10 years, or grade 9 ( n = 399), children aged between 14 and 16 years, were allocated to either a school-based cognitive-behavioural intervention or to a monitoring group. Participants completed the Spence Child Anxiety Scale and the Child Depression Inventory and were stratified into low-, moderate-And high-risk groups based on their anxiety scores at the start of the study. The effects of the prevention programme were evaluated at post- and 12-month follow-up intervals. Post-study results indicated significant reductions in anxiety ( p < .001) and depression ( p < .05) across high- and moderate-risk groups in both the intervention and monitoring conditions. This trend was evident at 12-month follow-up, however, reductions in anxiety were greater in the intervention condition ( p < .05). At post assessment, grade 6 participants showed significant changes in anxiety compared with grade 9 participants ( p < .001), although both primary and secondary school participants showed equal reductions in anxiety at 12-month follow-up. Overall, findings suggest that universal intervention is potentially successful in reducing anxiety symptoms in children. Primary school children reported the greatest changes in anxiety symptoms, suggesting that earlier preventive intervention is potentially more advantageous than later intervention in adolescence. The implications and limitations of this study and directions for future research are discussed.