This program is for youth who are 7 to 13 years old and have generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, phobias, separation anxiety disorder, or other anxiety problems and their parents.

Brief Coping Cat, a shortened version of the Coping Cat* program, is a community-based, cognitive-behavioral therapy program that is designed to provide youth and their parents with tools to understand and manage youth anxiety.

*A separate Fact Sheet is available for this program.

An uncontrolled study of youth who participated in the Brief Coping Cat program found that clinician ratings of severity for the principal anxiety diagnosis were significantly reduced at posttest, 2-month follow-up, and 1-year follow-up. Child and parent ratings of youth anxiety were also significantly reduced at posttest and 2-month follow-up. Although 65% of youth no longer met criteria for their principal anxiety diagnosis at 1-year follow-up, it is unclear if this result is due to the Brief Coping Cat program or other factors, such as additional treatment received or the passage of time. An additional study with a comparison group would help to clarify the outcomes of this program.

The Brief Coping Cat program uses the following strategies to help children cope with anxiety.

• Psychoeducation - Understand how anxiety develops and how it can be treated.
• Coping skills - Change anxious self talk, which contributes to anxiety, to self talk that is more adaptive.
• Homework assignments - Practice new skills outside of therapy.
• Exposure tasks - Master situations that cause anxiety.

A detailed therapist manual and a companion youth workbook of treatment tools and activities guide this treatment. Parents attend two meetings in which they learn about the treatment and develop skills to help their youth work through their anxiety.

Beyond the evaluation described above, which involved a small sample of predominantly white youth, the extent to which this program has been implemented is unknown.

This program is typically delivered by providers who are doctoral candidates, social workers, psychologists, or psychiatrists. There are training materials available for the Coping Cat program; however, there are no training materials available that are specifically for the Brief Coping Cat program. Please use details in the Contact section or visit the website listed in the Source section for more information.

Considerations for implementing this program include recruiting therapists who are skilled in working with youth and are committed to this program, locating space to hold sessions, and engaging youth and parents in the treatment process.

The Clearinghouse can help address these considerations. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu

If you are interested in implementing Brief Coping Cat, the Clearinghouse is interested in helping you!
Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu

Brief Coping Cat is delivered in eight 60- to 90-minute youth sessions and two parent meetings.

The therapist manual is $24, and the child workbook is $26.95. Please visit https://www.workbookpublishing.com/anxiety_brief-coping-cat.html for more information.

To move Brief Coping Cat to the Promising category on the Clearinghouse Continuum of Evidence, at least one randomized or quasi-experimental evaluation should be performed demonstrating positive effects lasting at least six months from program completion.

The Clearinghouse can help you develop an evaluation plan to ensure the program components are meeting your goals. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu

Contact the Clearinghouse with any questions regarding this program.
Phone: 1-877-382-9185 Email: Clearinghouse@psu.edu

You may also contact Philip C. Kendall, Ph.D., by phone 1-215-204-7165, fax 1-215-204-0566, email pkendall@temple.edu, or visit https://www.workbookpublishing.com/anxiety_brief-coping-cat.html

https://www.workbookpublishing.com/anxiety.html and Crawley et al. (2013).

Crawley, S. A., Kendall, P. C., Benjamin, C. L., Brodman, D. M., Wei, C., Beidas, R. S., . . . Mauro, C. (2013). Brief cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxious youth: Feasibility and initial outcomes. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 20(2), 123-133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpra.2012.07.003

Santesteban-Echarri, O., Hernández-Arroyo, L., Rice, S. M., Güerre-Lobera, M. J., Serrano-Villar, M., Espín-Jaime, J. C., & Jiménez-Arriero, M. Á. (2018). Adapting the Brief Coping Cat for children with anxiety to a group setting in the Spanish public mental health system: A hybrid effectiveness-implementation pilot study. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 27(10), 3300-3315. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1154-9

Pramana, G., Parmanto, B., Lomas, J., Lindhiem, O., Kendall, P. C., & Silk, J. (2018). Using mobile health gamification to facilitate cognitive behavioral therapy skills practice in child anxiety treatment: Open clinical trial. JMIR Serious Games, 20(5), e9-e9. https://doi.org/10.2196/games.8902