Clinical trial NCT00073619: Preventing Anxiety Disorders in Urban Youth
Official title: Community Violence and Youth: Preventing Anxiety Disorders
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Anxiety Disorders
Keywords: Violence
School based
Urban Youth
Prevention
Community
Lead sponsor: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
First posted: 2003-12-03
Enrollment: 200
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 8
Maximum age (years): 12
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: This study will determine the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral group therapy program in preventing anxiety disorders in at-risk children exposed to community violence.

Detailed description: Community violence is a major public health problem in low-income, urban communities. The mental health impact of living in a violent community is significant, particularly for children. Community violence exposure is associated with various symptoms of anxiety. Unfortunately, little research on the prevention of community-related anxiety in youth has been conducted. This study involves a school-based prevention and cognitive behavioral therapy program that will involve predominantly African American children who live in urban areas and are at risk for developing anxiety disorders.

Children in this study will be randomly assigned to either an anxiety prevention and early intervention group or a nonintervention group for approximately 3 months. Child, parent, and teacher assessments of anxiety symptoms will be made at the end of the study and at a 6-month follow-up visit.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Mild exposure to community violence
* Mild to moderate anxiety symptoms or disorders
* Attending public elementary school in an urban area
* In 3rd to 5th grades

Exclusion Criteria:

* Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-IV disruptive behavior disorder
* Too many or too few anxiety symptoms

Primary outcomes:
measure: Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale
timeFrame: Past month
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Screener
timeFrame: Past year
measure: Multicultural Events Schedule for Adolescents
timeFrame: Past year
measure: Children's Report of Exposure to Violence
timeFrame: Past year and Lifetime
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Baltimore
country: United States
facility: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
state: Maryland
Study officials:
affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
name: Michele R Cooley, Ph.D.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Lambert SF, Cooley MR, Campbell KD, Benoit MZ, Stansbury R. Assessing anxiety sensitivity in inner-city African American children: psychometric properties of the childhood anxiety sensitivity index. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2004 Jun;33(2):248-59. doi: 10.1207/s15374424jccp3302_5.
citation: Cooley MR, Boyce CA. An introduction to assessing anxiety in child and adolescent multiethnic populations: challenges and opportunities for enhancing knowledge and practice. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2004 Jun;33(2):210-5. doi: 10.1207/s15374424jccp3302_1.
citation: Cooley, M., Boyd, R.C., & Grados, J.J. (2004). Feasibility of an anxiety preventive intervention for community violence exposed children. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 25(1), 105-123.
citation: Cooley-Strickland MR, Griffin RS, Darney D, Otte K, Ko J. Urban African American youth exposed to community violence: a school-based anxiety preventive intervention efficacy study. J Prev Interv Community. 2011;39(2):149-66. doi: 10.1080/10852352.2011.556573.