Anxiety Among Children: Adaptation and Effectiveness of the Program Super Skills for Life in School Settings

Super Skills for Life (SSL) is a transdiagnostic prevention program designed for children with anxiety and depressive symptoms based on cognitive-behavioral therapy. This study is a Cluster Randomization Trial(cRCT) to determine the of the effectiveness of the SSL program to reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms along with improving self-esteem, social skills and overall quality of life in a sample of 126, 5th grade children recruited from 6 schools from Pakistan.

Schools were the unit of randomization and were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions; intervention group (SSL) and waiting list control (WLC) group. Assessments were conducted before and after the 8 sessions of intervention and follow-up assessment after 6 months.

Inclusion criteria

• Inclusion Criteria of the study was a selection of children of Grade 5th presented with anxiety symptoms according to their scores equal to or greater than 25 on a total scale score of The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) with age 9 and 13 years, who can speak and understand Urdu easily.

Exclusion criteria

• Children who have any serious physical/medical diseases, diagnosed mental health issues, developmental delays, or learning difficulties, and are under any psychological treatment were excluded. Furthermore, children who had undergone any surgery or experienced serious traumatic events in the past 6 months and who did not get permission from their parents with written informed consent from parents/ not willing to were also excluded.