Preventing Anxiety Disorders in Urban Youth

Experimental: Cognitive-behavioral group therapy

School-based anxiety preventive intervention (cognitive-behavioral group therapy) originally designed for Australian children that was culturally and contextually modified for inner-city children exposed to community violence. Participants received the weekly intervention and rewards for participating in the assessments.

Conductual: Cognitive-behavioral group therapy

School-based anxiety preventive intervention (cognitive-behavioral group therapy) originally designed for Australian children that was culturally and contextually modified for inner-city children exposed to community violence. Participants received the weekly intervention and rewards for participating in the assessments.

Sin intervención: Non-intervention Comparison

Provide no active intervention to the comparison group, although assess the children at the same assessment points as the experimental group. Participants in the control arm were told they were FRIENDS Program participants.They received rewards for participating in the assessments.

Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale

Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS; Reynolds & Richmond, 1997), a self-report measure of the level and nature of anxiety in children and adolescents. It is a 37-item questionnaire in which students agree or disagree to statements pertaining to how some people think or feel about themselves, assessing different ways anxiety is manifested. A higher score indicates more anxiety and distress. The RCMAS has good internal consistency (alpha = 0.83) and test-retest reliability (r = 0.68). In the FRIENDS study, Total RCMAS reliability was alpha = 0.83 at baseline and alpha = 0.84 at post-assessment.

Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Screener

Academic achievement was assessed using the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Screener (WIAT-Screener; Psychological Corporation, 1992), which consists of three subtests of the comprehensive WIAT battery (i.e., Basic Reading, Mathematics Reasoning, Spelling). It assesses basic academic skills; permits the calculation of age- and grade-based standard scores; was standardized using a large representative sample; is widely used; and has demonstrated reliability and validity with little evidence of practice effects (Psychological Corporation, 1992).

Multicultural Events Schedule for Adolescents

Adverse life events were assessed using the Multicultural Events Schedule for Adolescents (MESA; Gonzales, Gunnoe, Samaniego, & Jackson, 1995), developed to assess major and minor life events specific to an urban multiethnic population (Gonzales et al., 1995). It was normed on African American, European American, and English- and Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans. The MESA includes 84 items in which a student responds yes or no to each life events over the past year. A Total life events score is based on the number of events endorsed, with a higher score indicating more adverse life events and hassles. The MESA has adequate concurrent validity and test-retest reliability (Gonzales et al., 1995). In the FRIENDS project, the MESA Total score alpha = .89 at baseline, and alpha = .95 at the post-assessment.

Children's Report of Exposure to Violence

Children's Report of Exposure to Violence (CREV; Cooley, Turner, & Beidel, 1995). The CREV is a widely used self-report questionnaire developed to assess children's lifetime exposure to community violence. It has good two-week test-retest reliability (r = 0.75), internal consistency (overall alpha = .78), and construct validity (Cooley et al., 1995). Twenty-nine scored CREV items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 0-''no, never'' to 4-''everyday,'' to indicate the frequency of exposure to community violence via four modes (i.e., media, hearsay, witness, victimization). Types of violent situations include being chased or threatened, beaten up, robbed or mugged, shot, stabbed, or killed. Higher scores indicate more perceived exposure. A past-year version of the CREV was developed and administered at the post-assessment evaluation. Cronbach's alpha for the lifetime CREV Total score was .88 at baseline and .90 for the past-year version.