The Impact of the ‘FRIENDS for Life’ Emotional Resiliency Programme on Anxiety and School Adjustment – A Controlled Evaluation

This Thesis is divided up into three main chapters.

The Review Paper (Chapter 1) is a Systematic Literature Review of the effectiveness of the 'FRIENDS for Life' School-based CBT programme in preventing or reducing Childhood Anxiety in Primary and Secondary School Children. Using Systematic Literature Review Techniques, the included studies evaluating the 'FRIENDS for Life' programme were critiqued.

The following overlapping themes were identified: (1) the statistically significant findings reporting the positive benefits of this programme, (2) the numbers of 'at-risk' students moving into the 'healthy' score range, (3) the benefits of this programme for use with Non-English Speaking Background (NESB) students, (4) the effective use of non-mental health professionals to implement the programme and (5) the use of control groups sufficient sample sizes and follow-up evaluations.

The Empirical Paper (Chapter 2) evaluated the effectiveness of the 'FRIENDS for Life' Cognitive Behavioural Therapy programme on reducing anxiety and promoting positive school adjustment in First Year Irish Secondary School Students. Participants included 62 students (11-13 years) from three Irish Secondary Schools.

Measures were completed at pre-intervention, post-intervention and 4 months after completion of the programme. Analyses indicated that the programme significantly reduced anxiety in the intervention group in comparison to the control group at the four-month follow-up.

No significant main or interaction effects for 'Overall School Adjustment' were found. However, in depth analysis revealed a significant main effect in relation to the school adjustment domain of 'Negative Assertiveness'. Correlational analyses revealed interesting results in relation to perceptions of anxiety and school adjustment.

The Critical Appraisal Paper (Chapter 3) provides an evaluation of the research completed for this thesis. It discusses the 'Positivist' approach to the research, the strengths and limitations of the study as well as professional implications.

The chapter concludes with the author's personal reflections on undertaking this Doctoral Thesis.