Phobia Clinic
What is the best way to help children overcome their fears?
Excessive fear of a certain object or a specific situation is known as a phobia. A relatively large number of children suffer from a phobia. And this can significantly affect their ability to function in everyday life. At the Phobia Clinic, we are researching the best way to help children and adolescents with a phobia to overcome their fear.
Who can participate?
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Children and adolescents with a phobia, aged between 8 and 17 years
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Both children who have been in contact with Accare before and other who have not
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Children currently receiving phobia treatment, or who received treatment in the past year, cannot participate
Background
Children and adolescents with a phobia experience intense fear of certain animals, objects, activities or situations. Examples include fear of spiders, dogs, lifts or heights, the dentist or the doctor. At the Phobia Clinic, we teach children and adolescents with a phobia to overcome their fear. Since children and adolescents often do not express their fear, it is not always evident in their behaviour or it may manifest in a different way (for instance, in attention or concentration problems). In such a situation, a phobia is noticed at a late stage by parents and teachers. This is unfortunate, since programmes with proven effectiveness in managing phobias do exist. What is unclear, however, is how best to apply many of these programmes to children and adolescents. This is what the Phobia Clinic is researching.
The research study
Is it best for children to do exercises at home or at an institution’s outpatient clinic? Is it beneficial if parents help their child or are outcomes better if children do exercises on their own? And does it make any difference whether young people do the exercises intensively or more gradually? Such questions are addressed in the Phobia Clinic research study. Our aim with this study is to find out what works and for whom.
Children and adolescents participating in the study:
- Take part in three exercise sessions at one of our Phobia Clinics
- Have four interviews with the researchers
- Complete a detailed questionnaire on three occasions
Collaboration
The Phobia Clinic research study is a collaboration between Accare and the University of Groningen.