Background: Anxiety disorders in children and young people are common and bring significant personal and societal costs. Over the last two decades, there has been a substantial increase in research evaluating psychological and pharmacological treatments for anxiety disorders in children and young people and exciting and novel research has continued as the field strives to improve efficacy and effectiveness, and accessibility of interventions. This increase in research brings potential to draw together data across studies to compare treatment approaches and advance understanding of what works, how, and for whom. There are challenges to these efforts due largely to variation in studies' outcome measures and variation in the way study characteristics are reported, making it difficult to compare and/or combine studies, and this is likely to lead to faulty conclusions. Studies particularly vary in their reliance on child, parent, and/or assessor-based ratings across a range of outcomes, including remission of anxiety diagnosis, symptom reduction, and other domains of functioning (e.g., family relationships, peer relationships). Methods: To address these challenges, we convened a series of international activities that brought together the views of key stakeholders (i.e., researchers, mental health professionals, young people, parents/caregivers) to develop recommendations for outcome measurement to be used in treatment trials for anxiety disorders in children and young people. Results and Conclusions: This article reports the results of these activities and offers recommendations for selection and reporting of outcome measures to (a) guide future research and (b) improve communication of what has been measured and reported. We offer these recommendations to promote international consistency in trial reporting and to enable the field to take full advantage of the great opportunities that come from data sharing going forward.

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BackgroundSchool absenteeism (SA) is associated with anxiety, depression, and disruptive behavior. It is a risk factor for academic difficulties and school dropout, which predict problems in adulthood such as social, work-related, and health problems. The main goal of this study is to examine the initial effectiveness of a modular transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention (Back2School) for increasing school attendance and decreasing psychological problems, relative to a comparator control arm (treatment as usual [TAU]).Methods/designOne hundred sixty children, aged 7 to 16 years, will be randomly assigned to either Back2School or TAU. The design is a two (Back2School and TAU) by four (preassessment [T1], postassessment [T2], and 3-month [T3] and 1-year [T4] assessments) mixed between-within design. The primary outcome is school attendance based on daily registration. Secondary outcomes pertain to youth psychosocial functioning, quality of life, bullying, self-efficacy, and teacher-parent collaboration. These secondary outcomes are measured via youth, parent, and teacher reports.DiscussionThis study will provide critically needed empirical evidence on the initial effectiveness of a manualized treatment program for youth with SA. If the intervention is found to be effective, the program can be further implemented and tested in a larger school health effectiveness trial.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03459677. Retrospectively registered on 9 March 2018.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13063-018-3124-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

School absenteeism is a serious problem among youths, varying in etiology and presentation. Youths presenting high levels of absence have previously been linked to mental health problems, academic difficulties and dropout, highlighting the need for early identification and intervention. The aim of this study is twofold: first, to identify profiles among a community sample of secondary school students based on school absence, internalizing and externalizing behavior using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL-YSR). Second, to examine the relationship between profiles regarding mental health problems based on the dimensions of the CBCL-YSR, the function of their school absence using the School Refusal Assessment Scale (SRAS) and school refusal using the SChool REfusal EvaluatioN (SCREEN). The profiles are compared on demographic variables, family characteristics, school performance and bullying. A community sample of 469 youths (10-16 year, M=12.1 years, SD=1.2) from six French secondary publics schools participated in this study. Using cluster analysis, four distinct profiles were identified. The clusters differed significantly on school absence, internalizing problems, externalizing problems, dimensions of the CBCL-YSR, and their function of absence on the SRAS. Clusters differed significantly on several demographic variables, school level, grade, repetition and bullying. The distinctions between the four profiles and their relevance are discussed.

The current paper presents the results of a large‐scale, national, reading and writing curriculum survey and evaluates the alignment of the survey results to the reading and writing skills measured by the new SAT®. It was hypothesized that the skills measured by the writing and critical reading sections of the new SAT would be aligned to the curricula reflected in the survey responses. A strong alignment would provide important validity evidence for the new SAT. A total of 2,351 high school and college teachers in the United States were asked about reading and writing skills, student proficiency in reading and writing, assignments, and background information. The results demonstrate a strong link between the skills measured by the new SAT and high school and college curricula and instructional practice. Limitations and next steps are discussed.