Anxiety Among Children: Adaptation and Effectiveness of the Program Super Skills for Life in School Settings

Fatima Jinnah Women University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Behavioral Problems; Low Self-Esteem; Childhood Depression; Quality of Life (QOL); Childhood Anxiety; Emotional Problems; Social Skills

Treatments: Other: No Active Intervention; Other: Super Skills for Life (SSL) Program

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07162402

FJWU/EC/2021/32

Details and patient eligibility

About

Super Skills for Life (SSL) is a transdiagnostic prevention program designed for children with anxiety and depressive symptoms based on cognitive-behavioral therapy. This study is a Cluster Randomization Trial(cRCT) to determine the of the effectiveness of the SSL program to reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms along with improving self-esteem, social skills and overall quality of life in a sample of 126, 5th grade children recruited from 6 schools from Pakistan.

Schools were the unit of randomization and were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions; intervention group (SSL) and waiting list control (WLC) group. Assessments were conducted before and after the 8 sessions of intervention and follow-up assessment after 6 months.

Full description

Super Skills for Life (SSL) is a transdiagnostic prevention program designed for children with anxiety and depressive symptoms based on cognitive-behavioral therapy. This study is a Cluster Randomization Trial(cRCT) to determine the of the effectiveness of the SSL program to reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms along with improving self-esteem, social skills and overall quality of life in a sample of 126, 5th grade children recruited from 6 schools from Pakistan.

Schools were the unit of randomization and were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions; intervention group (SSL) and waiting list control (WLC) group. Assessments were conducted before and after the 8 sessions of intervention and follow-up assessment after 6 months.

Enrollment: 126 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 9 to 13 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Inclusion Criteria of the study was a selection of children of Grade 5th presented with anxiety symptoms according to their scores equal to or greater than 25 on a total scale score of The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) with age 9 and 13 years, who can speak and understand Urdu easily.

Exclusion criteria

• Children who have any serious physical/medical diseases, diagnosed mental health issues, developmental delays, or learning difficulties, and are under any psychological treatment were excluded. Furthermore, children who had undergone any surgery or experienced serious traumatic events in the past 6 months and who did not get permission from their parents with written informed consent from parents/ not willing to were also excluded.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Factorial Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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126 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention Group

Experimental group

Description:

In the intervention arm, 8 sessions Super Skills for Life (SSL), were delivered to students who were screened positive for anxiety symptoms

Treatment:

Other: Super Skills for Life (SSL) Program

Wait-List Control Group

Other group

Description:

Wait-list control group participants were not provided with intervention, they remained as usual with routine activities by teachers

Treatment:

Other: No Active Intervention