Effectiveness of School-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (Cool Kids) on Attentional Control and Attention bias

The aim of present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of school-based cognitive-behavioral therapy on increasing attentional control and reducing attention bias towards threat in anxious children.

The present study was a Single-subject study with Multiple Baseline. The statistical sample of this study included all children aged 9 to 13 referred to the health centers of Qom city and according to the research literature in the field of single subject designs, 3 subjects were considered for the implementation of the treatment protocol. Data was collected using the Kiddie schedule for Affective Disorder and Schizophrenia- Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL), Attentional Control Scale for Children and Dot Probe Task. The treatment protocol included 8 weekly individual sessions with children and 2 sessions with parents too. Data was analyzed using visual analysis, percentage of improvement and effect size (Cohen's d).

The findings show that all two subjects had an increasing trend in attentional control and all three subjects had a decreasing trend in attention bias, so that the school-based cognitive-behavioral therapy with the effect size (d=0/18) had small effect in increasing children's attentional control, but was effective in reducing attention bias with effect size (d= 2/93).

Based on the results of this research, school-based cognitive-behavioral therapy can be an effective Therapy in reducing attention bias towards threat in children with anxiety disorders, despite the fact that it has a small effect in increasing attentional control.