No Scaredy Cats: an exploratory study of the effectiveness of a parent-mediated anxiety intervention for children

This exploratory study evaluated No Scaredy Cats, a parent-mediated early intervention for children aged8 to 12 years with subclinical anxiety. The intervention was delivered to parents by a registered psychologist via a series of three webinars. The intervention involved psychoeducation, activities and discussions. Participants were ten parents who attended the webinars, and their children (aged 8 to 12years). They completed questionnaires related to family accommodation, anxiety symptoms and perceived locus of control at pre-intervention, three months and six months after attending the workshop series. Effectiveness of the intervention was partially supported with results indicating a significant decline in family accommodation behaviour from pre- to post-intervention as measured by parent report. However, the predicted reduction in parent-reported child state anxiety was not significant at 3-month post-intervention. Six-month follow-up data is currently being collected and results will be presented. The potential for No Scaredy Cats as a parent-mediated intervention needs to be explored further as an option to manage subclinical anxiety in children, as it presents an opportunity for a larger proportion of young people to receive early intervention for their symptoms.