Abstract
Pediatric anxiety disorders are common and associated with impairment in academic, social, familial, and personal domains of functioning. The negative effects of excessive anxiety can be ameliorated with effective treatments, which also have been found to improve academic functioning. Unfortunately, most afflicted youth are unidentified and never receive needed interventions. School-based intervention for anxiety can result in improved detection and better generalization of skills and thus represents a promising option for addressing excessive anxiety and disparities in care. A growing literature documents the effectiveness of school-based interventions for students with anxiety. This chapter summarizes and critiques extant literature on school-based interventions for anxiety, with a review organized by categories within a prevention science framework that also align with the multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) and Response to Intervention (RtI) models (i.e., primary prevention or Tier 1 interventions, secondary prevention or Tier 2 interventions, and tertiary or Tier 3 interventions). Findings reveal mixed support for the effectiveness of school-based interventions for anxiety and highlight a need for enhanced methodological rigor for future studies. In addition to improving the effectiveness of school-based interventions, one important task is to ensure the adoption and sustained use of interventions by school staff. Additional suggestions for future directions are also provided.
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Ginsburg, G.S., Smith, I.C. (2023). School-Based Interventions for Students with Anxiety. In: Evans, S.W., Owens, J.S., Bradshaw, C.P., Weist, M.D. (eds) Handbook of School Mental Health. Issues in Clinical Child Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20006-9_3
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