The Impact of Coping Cat Program on Symptoms Reduction in Children with Anxiety Disorders

Background and Anxiety disorder in children is one of the most important causes of maladjustment in children. The present study was designed for evaluating the effectiveness of the Coping Cat treatment program on reducing symptoms of anxiety disorder in elementary school children.
This is semi-experimental, pre and post-test design with control group. Study population consisted of 9-11 age male and female children with anxiety disorders. Utilizing Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (March and et al, 1997), and through a purposeful sampling method, 32 children from Tehran province were recruited and randomly assigned to 16 children in each group. The Coping Cat intervention administered for the experiment group, while there was no intervention for the control group. After intervention, post-test, and then after one month, the follow-up test was administered for the both groups.
SPANOVA analysis revealed that coping cat treatment program had a significant effectiveness on amelioration of symptoms of anxiety disorders in children. Also, this program has a significant effect on anxiety disorders variables on 1 month follow-up period (P Accordingly, we can conclude that the Coping Cat program can lead to reduction of anxiety disorder in children by identifying signs of unwanted anxiety and using these signs as a guide for applying anxiety management strategies.