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Helping kids stare fear in the face

Virginia Tech's Child Study Center, part of the College of Science, is working to arm children with ways to conquer their fears — and watching to see how much of an impact their parents' help makes.

   

"Approximately 5 percent of children experience some type of phobia," said Thomas Ollendick, University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology and lead investigator for the study.

The types of phobias children have are almost endless, but the more common ones include fears of bees, dogs, spiders, heights, storms, costumed characters, dark, and enclosed places, Ollendick said.

"For many children, phobias result in considerable school difficulties, social and personal problems, and interference in their everyday functioning," he said.

The four-year, National Institute of Mental Health-funded study is a follow up to a similar study Ollendick and his research team recently carried out in Virginia and Sweden. That study focused on treating children with phobias but did not include their parents in the treatment.

Results of the study showed about 60 percent of the children were phobia-free immediately following treatment and about 75 percent were phobia-free one year after treatment.

"Our expectation is that having parents involved in their children's treatment will be even more effective and that the treatment will show longer-lasting effects," Ollendick says. "Our efforts are aimed at providing both the children and their parents a set of skills that can be used and reinforced long after the treatment ends."

The treatment involves intensive one-session cognitive behavioral therapy, which lasts for approximately three hours.

   

During this treatment, children are taught new ways of interacting with the phobic object or situation and different ways of thinking about what will happen to them when in the presence of the phobic object or situation. In addition, the parents are taught a set of skills to help them deal with their children's fears.

In the new study, children and their families will be assigned randomly to the child-only treatment or to the new child-plus-parent treatment. The randomization procedure is necessary to establish the scientific value of the treatments.

   

"We are giving kids and their parents the skills and strategies to face their fears head on," Ollendick says. "This is the first time anyone has studied the effectiveness of actively including parents in the treatment of specific phobias in their children. For those who are interested, it is a chance to be involved in a novel treatment approach."

In order to be considered for the project, children must be between the ages of 7 and 12, have a specific phobia, and be able to travel to Blacksburg, Va., for the treatment program.

Participants who qualify for the study will receive $250 per family for their involvement in the various assessments that are needed to evaluate how well the treatments work. The treatment itself is free and confidential. The study will be conducted over the next four years and 154 children and their families are needed.

• For more information on this topic, contact Ali Hoffman at hoffmana@vt.edu or (540) 231-8276.