Cognitive behaviour therapy-based early intervention and prevention programme for anxiety in South African children with visual impairments

African Journal of Disability

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Cognitive behaviour therapy-based early intervention and prevention programme for anxiety in South African children with visual impairments
 
Creator Visagie, Lisa Loxton, Helene Swartz, Leslie Stallard, Paul
 
Subject primary care; primary health care anxiety; prevention; cognitive behaviour therapy; visual impairment; South Africa; children; schools-based interventions; efficacy
Description Background: Anxiety is the most common psychological difficulty reported by youth worldwide and may also be a significant problem for children with visual impairments. Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) interventions have proven to be successful in treating childhood anxiety; however, mostly these are not suitable for children with visual impairments, as the materials used are not sufficiently accessible to this population.Objectives: The present study was motivated by the dearth of research on this topic and aimed to examine the effects of a specifically tailored, group-based, universally delivered, CBT intervention for anxiety in children with visual impairments and to examine the influence of three predictor variables (i.e. age, gender and level of visual impairment) on prevention effects.Method: A randomised wait-list control group design with pre-, post- and follow-up intervention measures was employed. The final sample of 52 children (aged 9–14) with varying degrees of visual impairment received the anxiety intervention. Participants were followed over a course of 10 months during which their anxiety symptoms were assessed quantitatively at four time points (T1–T4).Results: The results indicated that the anxiety intervention did not significantly decrease symptoms of anxiety within the intervention groups. However, the intervention appeared beneficial for girls, younger children and legally blind participants.Conclusion: This study demonstrated how CBT interventions can be adapted for use in children with visual impairments. Results obtained provide a foundation upon which future updated anxiety intervention programmes can be built, meeting the need for further research in this area.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor National Research Foundation (NRF) South Africa
Date 2021-01-29
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — randomised wait-list control group design; quantitative research
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ajod.v10i0.796
 
Source African Journal of Disability; Vol 10 (2021); 8 pages 2226-7220 2223-9170
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/796/1507 https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/796/1506 https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/796/1508 https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/796/1505
 
Coverage South Africa; Western Cape 2014-2016 52 children aged 9-13; 24 girls and 28 boys; with visual impairments
Rights Copyright (c) 2021 Lisa Visagie, Helene Loxton, Leslie Swartz, Paul Stallard https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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