Predicting attrition in guided parent-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy for anxious children

179 Pages·2014·8.01 MB·English

by  Sarah Cook

Predicting attrition in guided parent-delivered cognitive
behavioural therapy for anxious children

Sarah Cook

D. Clin.Psy. thesis (Volume 1), 2014
University College London
UCL Doctorate in Clinical Psychology
Thesis Declaration Form

I confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has
been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis.

Signature:

Name: Sarah Cook

Date: 14/07/2014

2
Overview
Volume one of this thesis consists of three parts.
Part one is a literature review that examines pre-treatment demographic,
clinical, parent, child and therapist characteristics as predictors of outcome in the
treatment of child anxiety disorders. Methodological weaknesses associated with
existing prediction studies are considered and recommendations made for future
research.

Part two is an empirical paper which investigates predictors of treatment
attrition in a guided manualised self-help CBT intervention for anxious children,
delivered solely via parents. The results are discussed in relation to clinical
implications and recommendations are made for increasing retention in low-
intensity, parent-led treatments for childhood anxiety disorders.
Part three is a critical appraisal which discusses the limitations of using
observational measures to assess parent-child interactions and the challenges
associated with outcome measurement in child anxiety research. The background
context to the research is also outlined and the advantages and disadvantages of
conducting research using pre-collected data are considered.

3
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my supervisors Cathy Creswell, Stephen Butler and
Kerstin Thirlwall for their wisdom, patience enthusiasm and unwavering support
throughout my thesis. I would also like to extend a huge thank you to Polly Waite for
her help and advice with the systematic review. Special thanks go to my friend
Mandy Lau for her invaluable help, support and encouragement throughout the final
stages of the thesis.
I would like to thank all of my friends and colleagues at the Winnicott
Research Unit and Berkshire Child Anxiety Clinic and to all of the families who took
part in this research.
Most importantly, I would like to thank my wonderful husband Richard and
amazing children David, Stephen and Hannah. I couldn’t have done this without your
endless support and unfaltering belief in me. I am truly lucky to have such a
wonderful family!
Last but by no means least; I would like to thank my parents, friends and
fellow trainees for their ongoing encouragement, compassion and incredibly useful
hints and tips along the way.

4
Table of Contents
Thesis Declaration Form .......................................................................................... 2
Overview .................................................................................................................. 3
Acknowledgements .................................................................................................. 4
Table of Contents ..................................................................................................... 5
List of Tables and Figures ........................................................................................ 8
Part One ................................................................................................................ 8
Part Two ................................................................................................................ 8
PART ONE: Literature Review ................................................................................... 9
Predictors of treatment outcome for child and adolescent anxiety disorders............... 9
Abstract .................................................................................................................. 10
Introduction ............................................................................................................ 11
Treatment of Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adolescents ........................... 11
Predictors of Treatment Outcome ....................................................................... 12
Rationale and Aims of the Present Review ........................................................ 13
Method .................................................................................................................... 14
Inclusion Criteria ................................................................................................ 14
Preliminary Search Strategy ............................................................................... 15
Study Selection ................................................................................................... 16
Data Extraction ................................................................................................... 19
Quality Evaluation .............................................................................................. 19
Characteristics of Included Studies..................................................................... 21
Participants. ..................................................................................................... 21
Interventions. ................................................................................................... 26
Assessment of treatment outcome. .................................................................. 27
Child anxiety diagnoses. ................................................................................. 28
Child anxiety symptoms. ................................................................................. 28
Assessment of predictors of treatment outcome. ............................................ 28
Results .................................................................................................................... 30
Associations Between Child Demographic Factors and Treatment Outcome .... 30
Age. ................................................................................................................. 30
Gender. ............................................................................................................ 31
Ethnicity. ......................................................................................................... 33
5
Socio-economic status (SES). ......................................................................... 34
Associations between Clinical Characteristics and Treatment Outcome ........... 37
Baseline anxiety symptom severity. ................................................................ 37
Anxiety diagnosis. ........................................................................................... 40
Comorbidity. ................................................................................................... 42
General comorbidity. ................................................................................... 42
Internalising comorbidity and treatment outcome. ...................................... 44
Externalising comorbidity and treatment outcome. ..................................... 45
Associations between Parental Factors and Treatment Outcome ....................... 46
Parental psychopathology. .............................................................................. 46
Self-report measures. ................................................................................... 47
Maternal psychopathology. ............................................................................. 47
Paternal psychopathology. .............................................................................. 47
General parental psychopathology. ................................................................. 48
Diagnostic interviews and parental psychopathology. ................................ 49
Parenting behaviours. ...................................................................................... 51
Other Child, Clinical and Therapist Characteristics Associated with Treatment
Outcome .............................................................................................................. 57
Discussion .............................................................................................................. 59
Methodological Limitations ................................................................................ 63
Clinical Implications ........................................................................................... 64
References .............................................................................................................. 66
PART TWO: Empirical Paper ................................................................................... 84
Predicting attrition in guided parent-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy for
anxious children ......................................................................................................... 84
Abstract .................................................................................................................. 85
Introduction ............................................................................................................ 86
Treatment Drop Outs .......................................................................................... 89
Parental Cognitions ............................................................................................. 91
Parental behaviour .............................................................................................. 92
Hypotheses .......................................................................................................... 94
Method .................................................................................................................... 95
Participants.......................................................................................................... 95
Participant demographics. ............................................................................... 96
6
Intervention. .................................................................................................... 99
Ethics ................................................................................................................ 101
Procedure .......................................................................................................... 101
Measures ........................................................................................................... 101
Structured diagnostic interviews with children and parents. ........................ 101
Questionnaires. .............................................................................................. 102
Parental Overprotection measure (OP). ..................................................... 102
Depression Anxiety Stress Scale – Short Version (DASS21). .................. 103
The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-p). ........................... 104
Spence Child Anxiety Scale (Child Report; SCAS-C). ............................. 104
Pre-treatment challenge tasks. ....................................................................... 104
Task expectations. ..................................................................................... 105
Parental behaviours. .................................................................................. 105
Analytic Procedure ........................................................................................... 107
Results .................................................................................................................. 107
Tests for Normality ........................................................................................... 107
Preliminary Analyses ........................................................................................ 108
Challenge Tasks: Data Reduction ..................................................................... 109
Hypothesis Testing ........................................................................................... 110
Secondary Analyses .......................................................................................... 113
Discussion ............................................................................................................ 114
Limitations ........................................................................................................ 118
Clinical Implications ......................................................................................... 120
References ............................................................................................................ 122
PART THREE: Critical Appraisal ........................................................................... 131
Introduction .......................................................................................................... 132
Background context .......................................................................................... 132
Using pre-collected data: limitations and benefits ............................................ 133
Methodological issues in the direct observation of parent–child interaction ... 135
Issues with outcome measurement in child anxiety treatment trials ................ 139
Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 142
References ............................................................................................................ 144
Appendices ............................................................................................................... 148
7
Appendix A: Quality Evaluation .......................................................................... 149
Appendix B: Overlapping Samples ...................................................................... 152
Appendix C: Information and consent sheets ....................................................... 154
Appendix D: Documents Granting Ethical Approval .......................................... 162
Appendix E: Questionnaire measures .................................................................. 171
Appendix F: Pre-task Rating Scale and Coding Scheme Examples..................... 175
Appendix G: Tests of normality ........................................................................... 178

List of Tables and Figures
Part One
Figure 1. PRISMA diagram of study identification and selection .............................. 18
Table 1. Characteristics of included studies ............................................................... 23
Table 2. Associations between child demographic factors and treatment outcome .. 35
Table 3. Associations between clinical and parent characteristics and treatment
outcome ...................................................................................................................... 54
Table 4. Associations between other clinical, child and therapist characteristics and
treatment outcome ...................................................................................................... 58
Part Two
Table 1a. Participant demographics and self-report measures: Children ................... 98
Table 1b. Participant demographics and self-report measures: Parents ..................... 99
Table 2. Stage of treatment completed when dropout occurred............................... 100
Table 3. Parental cognitions as predictors of treatment drop out ............................. 112
Table 4. Parental behaviours as predictors of treatment drop out ............................ 113
Table 5. Parental education, child comorbidity and anxiety severity predicting
treatment drop out .................................................................................................... 114
8
PART ONE: Literature Review
Predictors of treatment outcome for child and adolescent anxiety
disorders

9
Abstract
Aims. This review examines what is currently known about pre-treatment
characteristics as predictors of outcome in the treatment of child anxiety disorders
and identifies directions for future research.

Methods. A systematic search resulted in 56 published studies meeting predefined
methodological criteria. Seventeen demographic (age, gender, SES, ethnicity),
clinical (type of diagnosis, pre-treatment anxiety severity, comorbidity, duration),
parent (psychopathology, parenting behaviour), child (threat related selective
attention, neurological, genotype, temperament, IQ, perfectionism), and therapist
(experience) factors were identified as potential predictors across studies.
Results. The majority of findings suggested that there are no demographic factors
that reliably predict treatment outcome however, higher levels of pre-treatment
anxiety severity, having a diagnosis of SAnxD and the presence of comorbid mood
disorders were more frequently found to be associated with worse treatment
outcomes. Parental psychopathology was consistently found to predict treatment
outcome but the evidence was stronger for younger children.
Conclusions. Overall, existing studies of pre-treatment variables as predictors of
child and adolescent anxiety treatment outcome have provided mixed findings
concerning for whom treatments are most effective. Suggestions for future research
are discussed.

10