Brief parent-assisted treatment for children's nighttime fears

A brief parent-assisted treatment for children's nighttime fears is described. Five children, ages 4-5 years, and their parents participated in the study, which was designed as a multiple baseline across-subjects experiment. The children were taught relaxation skills, pleasant imagery, and self-instructions to reduce anxiety; the parents were trained to positively reinforce compliance and reductions in their children's fearful behavior. Nightly ratings of the children's bedtime behavior (e.g., crying spells, getting out of bed, the time it took to fall asleep) were completed by the parents. Relative to baseline scores, the mean reduction in fearful behaviors at the end of the 3-week treatment phase was 40%. Six weeks later, it increased to 48%. Telephone interviews with the parents at a 6-month follow-up suggested continued improvement. Pre- and post-ratings on the Child Behavior Checklist showed significant improvement in the children's behavior at the end of treatment, as well as at a 6-week follow-up. This suggests that the beneficial effects of the intervention went beyond the presenting problem. The results of this study extend the generalizability of previous research to a younger population of nighttime fear sufferers.