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EMOTION: 'Coping Kids' Managing Anxiety and Depression

Topic Areas
Scientific Rating
Child Welfare Relevance
Multiproblem Approaches (Child & Adolescent)
2  — Supported by Research Evidence
Medium

About This Program

Target Population: Children 8 to 12 years and their parents/caregivers

For children/adolescents ages: 8 – 12

For parents/caregivers of children ages: 8 – 12

Program Overview

Anxiety and depression are common and co-occur at high rates. EMOTION: “Coping Kids” Managing Anxiety and Depression is a transdiagnostic intervention designed to reduce the likelihood of the development of an anxiety and/or depressive disorder. EMOTION integrates the core components of research-supported treatments for children with anxiety/depression and targets common underlying processes and building skills that are typically helpful for addressing both anxiety and depression. The aim of the program and the homework is to emphasize how completing homework assignments helps children to practice and master new skills. The first half of the program aims to build skills, and the second half of the program involves activities such as behavioral activation and exposure. Meetings for parents are also part of the program.

Program Goals

The goals of EMOTION: 'Coping Kids' Managing Anxiety and Depression are:

For children:

  • Build skills to address anxiety and/or depression.

For parents/caregivers:

  • Support activities that help children address anxiety and/or depression.

Logic Model

The program representative did not provide information about a Logic Model for EMOTION: 'Coping Kids' Managing Anxiety and Depression.

Essential Components

The essential components of EMOTION: 'Coping Kids' Managing Anxiety and Depression include:

  • Target the similar underlying processes that contribute to anxiety and depression in youth.
  • Teach skills and provide opportunities for practice (e.g., behavioral experiments, exposure tasks).
  • Provide and encourage use of activities for parent/caregiver involvement.
  • Engage children through:
    • Problem solving
    • Emotion education
    • Exposure tasks
    • Behavioral experiments
    • Homework assignments
    • Parental involvement

Program Delivery

Child/Adolescent Services

EMOTION: 'Coping Kids' Managing Anxiety and Depression directly provides services to children/adolescents and addresses the following:

  • Anxiety, depression

Parent/Caregiver Services

EMOTION: 'Coping Kids' Managing Anxiety and Depression directly provides services to parents/caregivers and addresses the following:

  • Parent of a child with anxiety and/or depression

Recommended Intensity:

Group sessions on an almost weekly basis

Recommended Duration:

20 sessions over 6 months

Delivery Settings

This program is typically conducted in a(n):

  • Hospital
  • Group or Residential Care
  • School Setting (Including: Day Care, Day Treatment Programs, etc.)

Homework

EMOTION: 'Coping Kids' Managing Anxiety and Depression includes a homework component:

There are assigned tasks called STIC tasks (Show That I Can).

Languages

EMOTION: 'Coping Kids' Managing Anxiety and Depression has materials available in a language other than English:

Norwegian

For information on which materials are available in this language, please check on the program's website or contact the program representative (contact information is listed at the bottom of this page).

Resources Needed to Run Program

The typical resources for implementing the program are:

  • Rooms for meeting
  • Various small objects (e.g., roll of yarn)
  • Copies of the children’s workbooks for each child
  • Copies of the manuals for each service provider

Manuals and Training

Prerequisite/Minimum Provider Qualifications

No educational requirements, but there is a required therapist manual.

Manual Information

There is a manual that describes how to deliver this program.

Program Manual(s)

Here are the manual citations:

Training Information

There is training available for this program.

Training Contact:
Training Type/Location:

Contact training contact above for details.

Number of days/hours:

One-day training for 6 hours

Implementation Information

Pre-Implementation Materials

There are no pre-implementation materials to measure organizational or provider readiness for EMOTION: 'Coping Kids' Managing Anxiety and Depression.

Formal Support for Implementation

There is no formal support available for implementation of EMOTION: 'Coping Kids' Managing Anxiety and Depression.

Fidelity Measures

There are no fidelity measures for EMOTION: 'Coping Kids' Managing Anxiety and Depression.

Implementation Guides or Manuals

There are no implementation guides or manuals for EMOTION: 'Coping Kids' Managing Anxiety and Depression.

Implementation Cost

There are no studies of the costs of EMOTION: 'Coping Kids' Managing Anxiety and Depression.

Research on How to Implement the Program

Research has not been conducted on how to implement EMOTION: 'Coping Kids' Managing Anxiety and Depression.

Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research

Child Welfare Outcome: Child/Family Well-Being

Loevaas, M. E. S., Sund, A. M., Lydersen, S., Neumer, S-P., Martinsen, K., Holen, S., Patras, J., Adolfsen, F., & Reinfjell, T. (2019). Does the transdiagnostic EMOTION intervention improve emotion regulation skills in children?. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 28(3), 805–813. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-01324-1

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants: 1474 (873 Children and 601 parents)

Population:

  • Age — Children: 8–12 years; Parents: 31–57 years
  • Race/Ethnicity — Norwegian
  • Gender — Children: 346 Female; Parents: 468 Female
  • Status — Participants were children with anxious and/or depressive symptoms.

Location/Institution: Thirty-six schools across three regions in Norway

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The purpose of the study was to investigate whether EMOTION, improves emotion regulation skills as reported by parents. Participating schools were matched and randomly divided into 18 control and 18 intervention (EMOTION) schools. Measures utilized include the Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC). Results indicate that there was a decrease in dysregulation of emotions and an increase in emotion regulation in the EMOTION group compared to the control group. Limitations include that the researchers cannot state that the results of the study were due exclusively to the intervention due to differences between the intervention and control groups at baseline, reliance on self-reported measures, and the lack of follow-up.

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: None.

Martinsen, K. D., Rasmussen, L. M. P., Wentzel-Larsen, T., Holen, S., Sund, A. M., Løvaas, M. E. S., Patras, J., Kendall, P. C., Waaktaar, T., & Neumer, S.-P. (2019). Prevention of anxiety and depression in school children: Effectiveness of the transdiagnostic EMOTION program. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 87(2), 212–219. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000360

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants: 1474 (873 children and 601 parents)

Population:

  • Age — Children: 8–12 years (Mean=10.1 years); Parents: Not specified
  • Race/Ethnicity — Children: Not specified; Mothers: 94% Caucasian/Nordic/Western European
  • Gender — Children: 58% Female and 42% Male; Parents: Not specified
  • Status — Participants were children with anxious and/or depressive symptoms.

Location/Institution: Thirty-six schools across three regions in Norway

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The study used the same sample as Loevaas et al. (2019). The purpose of the study was to examine the effectiveness of EMOTION Coping Kids Managing Anxiety and Depression, targeting symptoms of anxiety and depression in school children. Participating schools were matched and then randomly assigned to (a) EMOTION intervention (EC) or (b) control condition (CC). Measures utilized include the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC-C/P) and the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire-short form (SMFQ-C/P). Results indicate that there were significant reductions of anxious and depressive symptoms as reported by the children, where children in the EC had almost twice the reduction in symptoms compared to the CC. For parent report of the child's depressive symptoms, there was a significant decrease of symptoms in the EC compared to CC. However, parents did not report a significant decrease in anxious symptoms in the EC as compared to CC. Limitations include a low rate of the overall school population having participated because at-risk children were targeted, knowledge about the school groups could have influenced the recruitment and/or the reporting of symptoms, recruitment was based on child report, Norwegian ethical guidelines aimed to recruit children with elevated symptoms, and lack of follow-up.

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: None.

Loevaas, M. E. S., Lydersen, S., Sund, A. M., Neumer, S-P., Martinsen, K. D., Holen, S., Patras, J., Adolfsen, F., Rasmussen L-M. P., & Reinfjell T. (2020). A 12-month follow-up of a transdiagnostic indicated prevention of internalizing symptoms in school-aged children: The results from the EMOTION study. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 14, Article 15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-020-00322-w

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants: 795

Population:

  • Age — Children: 8–12 years; Parents: Not specified
  • Race/Ethnicity — Children: 95% Norwegian; Parents: 89% Norwegian
  • Gender — Children: 461 Female; Parents: 479 Female
  • Status — Participants were children with anxious and/or depressive symptoms.

Location/Institution: Thirty-six schools across three regions in Norway

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The study used the same sample as Loevaas et al. (2019). The purpose of the study was to investigate the 12 month follow-up effects of the EMOTION intervention. Participating schools were matched and then randomized into 18 intervention schools and 18 control schools. Measures utilized include the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC) and the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire-short form (SMFQ). Results indicate that there was a larger decrease of symptoms in the EMOTION group than in the control group for child self-reported anxious symptoms. Parental reports for both anxious and depressive symptoms in children also showed a reduction. No statistically significant difference was found for child self-reported depressive symptoms. Limitations include low socioeconomic diversity of the sample, missing data, reliance on self-report, and high dropout rates preintervention in the EMOTION group.

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: 1 year.

Additional References

Martinsen, K., Kendall, P. C., Stark, K., & Neumer, S-P. (2016). Prevention of anxiety and depression in children: Acceptability and feasibility of the transdiagnostic EMOTION program. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 23(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpra.2014.06.005

Contact Information

Philip C. Kendall, PhD, ABPP
Website: www.workbookpublishing.com/emotion.html
Email:
Phone: (215) 694-5546

Date Research Evidence Last Reviewed by CEBC: July 2024

Date Program Content Last Reviewed by Program Staff: February 2021

Date Program Originally Loaded onto CEBC: December 2021