Research project: Minimising Young Children's Anxiety through Schools

MY-CATS is a cluster randomized controlled trial to examine prevention of anxiety disorders in children individually identified at risk of developing these. The online intervention will be for parents of children aged 4-7 years who are at risk of developing anxiety problems, and we will then test it out in a large cluster randomised controlled trial involving 60 primary schools. The project involves parents completing questionnaires to help identify which children may be most likely to benefit from support. Where responses suggest the child is at risk of developing anxiety problems and may be most likely to benefit from support, parents in 30 ‘intervention’ schools will be offered an online intervention with telephone support from a wellbeing practitioner, and parents in 30 ‘control’ schools will not be offered the intervention. The intervention is designed to help parents encourage their child to build confidence and minimise problems with anxiety by providing them with skills and strategies for now and in the future. We will compare outcomes for families who are and are not offered the intervention and assess whether it is good value for money. We will also look at characteristics of families who do and do not benefit, and what helps the intervention to work.

Principal investigator: Dr Pete Lawrence, Lecturer in Clinical Psychology