The proposed research project will experimentally test the effectiveness of Group Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (GCBT) with anxiety disordered children. The specific disorders that GCBT targets include Social Phobia (SOP), Overanxious Disorder (OAD), and Avoidant Disorder (AVD). Recent surveys of the literature indicate that anxiety and phobic disorders of childhood and adolescence is one of the most prevalent if not the most prevalent disorder of childhood and adolescence. A total of 150 children (ages 8-12) and their parent(s) will be admitted to the study. Children who are admitted to the study will meet DSM-III-R criteria for a primary diagnosis of SOP, OAD, AVD. The proposed research study will use a pre-post experimental research design with a """"""""waitlist"""""""" control group with random assignment to condition. The primary research question for the study concerns the effectiveness of GCBT relative to a waitlist control condition. Effectiveness will be evaluated on two levels: global and specific. First, the effectiveness of GCBT in reducing global level of distress as it interferes with overall functioning will be evaluated relative to the control condition. Second, the effectiveness of GCBT in reducing specific target symptomatology for SOP, OAD, AVD respectively will be evaluated relative to the control condition. Additional hypotheses will be tested with respect to variables that may either be related to or may moderate the effects of treatment. The data analytic strategies will include LISREL, repeated multivariate analysis of variance, and multivariate multiple regression analysis. A treatment manual (child and parent) has been developed for GCBT, thereby rendering the modality replicable by other researchers and accessible to clinicians upon its evaluation.
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