Clinically, behavior therapy, in particular, exposure-based techniques, have been used extensively in the treatment of school phobic children. Despite widespread clinical us, however, controlled group investigations of efficacy arc absent from the research literature. Thus, the main purpose of our investigation is to conduct a controlled evaluation of the effectiveness of exposure treatment in the elimination of anxiety-based school refusal. One hundred children and adolescents with anxiety-based school refusal will participate in a 12 week treatment trial. Youngsters will bc assigned to one of two treatment conditions: (1) exposure therapy (n=50), or (2) an educational-support control condition (n=50). Clinical response will be evaluated throughout the 12 weeks of the study through multi-method, multiple informant (parent, child, therapist, teacher) assessments. Comparison of findings for the two treatment conditions on clinical outcome measures will allow determination of the efficacy of exposure therapy relative to that of the control condition. Moreover, analysis of the effects of demographic and clinical covariates on treatment outcome will permit determination of whether particular subgroups of school refusers respond differentially to treatment.
| Last, C G; Hansen, C; Franco, N (1998) Cognitive-behavioral treatment of school phobia. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 37:404-11 |
| Hansen, C; Sanders, S L; Massaro, S et al. (1998) Predictors of severity of absenteeism in children with anxiety-based school refusal. J Clin Child Psychol 27:246-54 |
