Mediators of cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety-disordered children and adolescents : cognition, perceived control, and coping

The purpose is to investigate whether a change in putative mediators (negative and positive thoughts, coping strategies, and perceived control over anxious situations) precedes a change in anxiety symptoms in anxiety-disordered children and adolescents receiving cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Participants were 145 Dutch children (8–18 years old, M = 12.5 years, 57% girls) with a primary anxiety disorder. Assessments were completed pretreatment, in-treatment, posttreatment, and at 3-month follow-up. Sequential temporal dependencies between putative mediators and parent- and child-reported anxiety symptoms were investigated in AMOS using longitudinal Latent Difference Score Modeling. During treatment an increase of positive thoughts preceded a decrease in child-reported anxiety symptoms. An increase in three coping strategies (direct problem solving, positive cognitive restructuring, and seeking distraction) preceded a decrease in parent-reported anxiety symptoms. A reciprocal effect was found for perc...