Disclosure of distress among anxiety-disordered youth: Differences in treatment outcome

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2005

Abstract

The present study evaluated treatment outcome differences in anxiety-disordered youth who differed in their disclosure of internal distress as measured in a structured diagnostic interview. One hundred and seventy-one clinic-referred, anxiety-disordered children served as participants. Participants' primary diagnoses were one of three anxiety disorders: separation anxiety, generalized anxiety/overanxious, or social phobia/avoidance. At a pretreatment assessment, children and their parents were interviewed separately using the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule (ADIS) to determine the child's diagnosis. The child's status as a discloser of high distress or discloser of low distress was determined by the parents' endorsement of an anxiety disorder and the child's endorsement or lack of endorsement of an anxiety disorder, respectively. Parents, teachers, and children also completed measures assessing the child's psychopathology (e.g., Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, Child Behavior Checklist). In general, findings indicated that the level of distress reported by the children moderated treatment outcome. Although both groups benefited from treatment, the children disclosing high distress experienced greater treatment gains than the children disclosing low distress. © 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publication Title

Journal of anxiety disorders

Volume

19

Issue

4

First Page

403

Last Page

422

Comments

This article was published in Journal of anxiety disorders, Volume 19, Issue 4, Pages 403-422.

The published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2004.04.003.

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