Cognitive-behavior therapy with nighttime fearful children

In this study, the nighttime problems of two girls diagnosed as having separation anxiety disorder were treated with cognitive-behavioral procedures. Through the use of a multiple baseline design across subjects, the additive effects of self-control training and self-control training plus contingent reinforcement were determined. For both girls, self-report of anxiety and behavioral avoidance of sleeping in their own beds was reduced significantly only when to the self-control training the reinforcement condition was added. Resolution of these nighttime problems also appeared to generalize to other features of separation anxiety disorder. The clinical and theoretical significance of these findings is discussed.