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Coping Cat

An Evidence-Based Practice

Description

The Coping Cat program is a cognitive-behavioral therapy intervention that helps children recognize and analyze anxious feelings and develop strategies to cope with anxiety-provoking situations. The program focuses on four related components: (1) recognizing anxious feelings and physical reactions to anxiety; (2) clarifying feelings in anxiety-provoking situations; (3) developing a coping plan (for example, modifying anxious self-talk into coping self-talk, or determining what coping actions might be effective); and (4) evaluating performance and administering self-reinforcement. By incorporating adaptive skills to prevent or reduce feelings of anxiety, the Coping Cat therapist uses a workbook to guide the child through consideration of previous behavior in situations in which the child felt anxious, as well as the development of expectations for future behavior in anxious situations. The Coping Cat workbook is used for children aged 8 to 13 years and the C.A.T. Project workbook is used for children aged 14 to 17 years. The C.A.T. Project differs from Coping Cat only in the use of developmentally appropriate pictures and examples for older ages.

Goal / Mission

The goal of this program is to help children recognize and deal with anxiety.

Impact

Studies have found that participants in the Coping Cat program show significant reductions in anxiety and fear, improvements in ability to cope with dreaded situations, and a reduction in the frequency of negative thoughts during the week.

Results / Accomplishments

All three evaluation studies of Coping Cat found that participants experienced a wide range of significant, positive outcomes when compared with control group participants. Specifically, the intervention group had better outcome scores than the control group on anxiety measures, fear scores, perceived ability to cope with most-dreaded situations, frequency of negative thoughts during the past week, and depression. Findings for child self-report measures were the most robust across the studies, while parent reports and behavioral observations were somewhat mixed.

About this Promising Practice

Organization(s)
Child and Adolescent Anxiety Disorders Clinic
Primary Contact
Child and Adolescent Anxiety Disorders Clinic
Weiss Hall
1701 North 13th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122
(215) 204-7165
info@childanxiety.org
http://childanxiety.org/wps/
Topics
Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders
Health / Children's Health
Organization(s)
Child and Adolescent Anxiety Disorders Clinic
Source
SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP)
Date of publication
Oct 2006
For more details
http://www.workbookpublishing.com/coping-cat-workb...
https://www.cebc4cw.org/program/coping-cat/detaile...
Target Audience
Children

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Related Content for: Coping Cat

An Evidence-Based Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes at a minimum: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program implementation steps, and outcomes that have demonstrated program success in achieving the program goal in one or more localities.
  2. The results from an evaluation of the program include quantitative measures showing improvement in the outcome(s) of interest after the implementation of the program (i.e. increase in smoking cessation, not just the delivery of a smoking cessation program). The outcome measure(s) is/are compared at relevant time periods before and after the intervention or program implementation. Alternatively, the evaluation study compares the outcome(s) between an intervention group and an appropriate control group.
  3. The study is of peer-review quality and presents numbers in a scientific manner; measurements of precision and reliability are included (e.g. confidence intervals, standard errors), results from statistical tests show a significant difference or change in the outcome measure(s), and relevant point estimates and p-values are presented. Note: if the results from an evaluation of a program are presented in a scientific manner and the outcome measure is improved compared to the baseline measurement or the control group but the difference is not statistically significant, the practice is classified as effective and not evidence-based.
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