Intervention for School Anxiety and Absenteeism in Children (ISAAC): Mixed-Method Feasibility Study of a Coach-Assisted, Parent-Focused Online Program.
The aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic has seen an increase in persistent school absenteeism and Emotionally-Based School Avoidance (EBSA). However, suitable evidence-based psychological interventions are often unavailable. We aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a new parent-focused...
| Publicado en: | Child Psychiatry & Human Development Vol. 57; no. 4; pp. 966 - 981 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Springer Nature
Aug2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=195896157&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 195896157 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0009398X CPH jtl: Child Psychiatry & Human Development issn: 0009398X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Aug2026 vid: 57 iid: 4 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 195896157 10.1007/s10578-024-01755-6 ppf: 966 ppct: 15 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 1.1MB tig: atl: Intervention for School Anxiety and Absenteeism in Children (ISAAC): Mixed-Method Feasibility Study of a Coach-Assisted, Parent-Focused Online Program. aug: au: Lester, Kathryn J. McDonald, Brontë Tunks, Alice Michelson, Daniel affil: https://ror.org/00ayhx656 School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK https://ror.org/01qz7fr76 Primary Care and Public Health Department, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton, UK https://ror.org/0220mzb33 Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK https://ror.org/0220mzb33 NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London, London, UK su: Anxiety Online education Psychotherapy Anxiety disorders School absenteeism Feasibility studies Services for caregivers sug: subj: Anxiety Online education Psychotherapy Anxiety disorders School absenteeism Feasibility studies Services for caregivers keyword: Emotionally-based school avoidance Feasibility Mixed methods Online parent intervention Primary school-aged children Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Psychology Medical and Health Sciences Public Health and Health Services Emotionally-based school avoidance Feasibility Mixed methods Online parent intervention Primary school-aged children Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Psychology Medical and Health Sciences Public Health and Health Services ab: The aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic has seen an increase in persistent school absenteeism and Emotionally-Based School Avoidance (EBSA). However, suitable evidence-based psychological interventions are often unavailable. We aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a new parent-focused online program, Intervention for School Anxiety and Absenteeism in Children (ISAAC), which has been co-designed with parents and practitioners. This exploratory mixed-method study recruited participants from three schools in southern England, enrolling N = 9 parents for whom a child, aged 5–11 years, was experiencing signs of EBSA. The intervention consisted of three web-based psychoeducational modules respectively addressing parental stress, accommodating parenting behaviors, and communication with school staff. Module completion was assisted by weekly calls with a non-specialist "coach." Feasibility was measured using indicators of retention, module participation, overall program completion and coaching fidelity. Acceptability was assessed using semi-structured interviews, module ratings and written qualitative feedback. We also explored baseline-post change in parent-reported measures of children's school avoidance, absences, anxiety, parental stress, accommodating parenting behaviors, and quality of parent-school communication. Overall, the intervention was feasible to deliver to parents with six (67%) participants completing the full intervention. Participants found the intervention acceptable across thematic domains of affective attitude, burden, coherence, self-efficacy and perceived effectiveness. Participants particularly appreciated the coach's support. We observed small to moderate reductions in school avoidance behaviours (d with Hedges correction = 0.36), child anxiety (d with Hedges correction = 0.33) and accommodating behaviours (d with Hedges correction = 0.44) at the post timepoint compared to baseline. In conclusion, ISAAC shows early promise with the potential to deliver scalable online support for families affected by emerging EBSA. Future research should move toward establishing effectiveness in a randomized controlled trial. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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