A universal prevention trial of anxiety and depressive symptomatology in childhood: Preliminary data from an Australian study

This paper describes the development and preliminary findings of a program designed to prevent the development of anxiety and depressive symptoms in c hildren aged 10 to 13 years. Using a universal prevention approach, a total of 594 children were randomly assigned on a class-by-class basis to either a 10-session family.-roup CBT program (FRIENDS) routinely implemented as p art of the school curriculum, or to a comparison group. Pre-post interventi on changes were examined universally, and for children who scored above the clinical cut-off for anxiety at pretest. Results revealed that children in the FRIENDS intervention group reported fewer anxiety symptoms, regardless of their risk status, than the comparison group at posttest. In terms of r eported levels of depression, only the high anxiety group who completed the FRIENDS intervention evidenced improvements at posttest. Overall, these pr eliminary results appear to support the benefits of a school-based universa l cognitive-behavioural intervention program. Implications of this study ar e discussed, and long-term follow-up measures are currently underway.