Attentional Control Accounts for the Association Between Anxiety Sensitivity and Sleep Efficiency in Clinic-Referred Youth.

Youth with anxiety disorders report difficulty falling asleep and returning to sleep after sleep onset (i.e., poor sleep efficiency). Anxiety sensitivity, the excessive attention to physical symptoms of anxiety and their threatening interpretations, has been linked to poor sleep efficiency. We tested a conceptual model wherein attentional control, attentional focusing and attentional shifting would account for the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and poor sleep efficiency. 255 youths (6-17 years old, 78% Hispanic/Latino) who presented to a university-based research clinic completed measures on anxiety sensitivity, sleep, and attentional control. Poorer sleep efficiency was significantly correlated with higher anxiety sensitivity and lower attentional control, attentional focusing, and attentional shifting. Higher anxiety sensitivity was significantly correlated with lower attentional control and attentional focusing. Attentional control and attentional focusing, not attentional shifting, accounted for the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and poor sleep efficiency. These findings identify attentional control and attentional focusing as variables that may explain the association between anxiety sensitivity and sleep efficiency in youth.

Parent Accommodation Contemporaneously Mediates the Association Between Youth Irritability and Youth Anxiety Treatment Outcome.

Research documents that child and adolescent (youth) irritability and anxiety have high co-occurrence, and anxious-irritable presentations are associated with greater impairment than anxious nonirritable presentations. This study examines the association between irritability and youth anxiety treatment outcome and tests a conceptual model of the associations among youth irritability, parent accommodation, and youth anxiety severity following cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT). Participants were N = 128 clinic-referred youths ages 6 to 17 years (M = 9.76 years; 57% female) who met criteria for primary anxiety disorder diagnoses and completed a 12- to 14-week CBT anxiety protocol. Parent- and youth-report on youth irritability, parent accommodation of their child's anxiety, and youth anxiety severity were assessed pretreatment and posttreatment. Using parent-report, youth irritability at pretreatment was associated with high parent accommodation of youth anxiety and high youth anxiety severity at posttreatment. The association between irritability and youth anxiety outcome was mediated contemporaneously by parent accommodation at posttreatment. These findings show that parent accommodation of their anxious-irritable children's anxiety may account for high youth anxiety severity following treatment. Developing strategies to target irritability in anxious youth and/or reduce parent accommodation in the presence of youth irritability represent important directions for future research.

Mothers' Psychological Control and Accommodation are Associated with More Severe Anxiety in Hispanic Youth.

Psychological accommodation and control may help explain the finding that anxiety is more severe and common in Hispanic youth. Research with White samples conceptualizes psychological control as part of an authoritarian parenting style; however, research with Hispanic families suggests that psychological control is more likely to be indicative of a protective parenting style. Based on these findings, we hypothesized that in Hispanic families, psychological control would be related to protective parenting behaviors that ultimately maintain child anxiety. We tested a cross-sectional model hypothesizing that in Hispanic families the link between ethnicity and anxiety would be mediated through psychological control and parental accommodation of child anxiety, a parenting behavior which protects the child from the aversive experiences in the moment but ultimately serves to maintain child anxiety. A sample of mothers (n = 145; 48% Hispanic) and fathers (n = 59; 48% Hispanic) of youth from 8 to 18 years of age completed a survey assessing anxiety and parenting. With Hispanic mothers, the relation between ethnicity (Hispanic/non-Hispanic) and child anxiety was mediated through psychological control and accommodation. With fathers, although control was related to accommodation which, in turn, was related to child anxiety, ethnicity was not associated with control, accommodation, or child anxiety. Findings suggest that the context of parenting behavior should be considered in research, and adaptations of child anxiety treatments should consider ways to allow parents to express their desire to communicate warmth and protectiveness while avoiding negative reinforcement of child anxiety.

Sleep fails to depotentiate amygdala-reactivity to negative emotional stimuli in youth with elevated symptoms of anxiety.

Sleep-related problems often precede escalating anxiety in early adolescence. Pushing beyond broad sleep-mental health associations and toward mechanistic theories of their interplay can inform etiological models of psychopathology. Recent studies suggest that sleep depotentiates neural (e.g., amygdala) reactivity during reexposure to negative emotional stimuli in adults. Persistent amygdala reactivity to negative experiences and poor sleep characterize anxiety, particularly at the transition to adolescence. We propose that sleep depotentiates amygdala reactivity in youth but fails to do so among youth with anxiety. Participants (n = 34; 18 males; age, mean [M] = 11.35, standard deviation [SD] = 2.00) recruited from the community and specialty anxiety clinics viewed valenced images (positive, negative, and neutral) across two fMRI sessions (Study, Test), separated by a 10-12-hour retention period of sleep or wake (randomized). Mixed linear models regressed basolateral amygdala (BLA) activation and BLA-medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) functional connectivity to negative images on Time, Condition, and Anxiety Severity. There were greater reductions in BLA activations to negative target images from Study to Test in the Sleep Condition, which was blunted with higher anxiety (b = -0.065, z = -2.355, p = 0.019). No such sleep- or anxiety-related effects were observed for BLA-mPFC functional connectivity (ps > 0.05). Sleep supports depotentiation of amygdala reactivity to negative stimuli in youth, but this effect is blunted at higher levels of anxiety. Disruptions in sleep-related affective habituation may be a critical, modifiable driver of anxiety.

Attention Training as a Low-Intensity Treatment for Concerning Anxiety in Clinic-Referred Youth.

Although youth anxiety treatment research has focused largely on severe and impairing anxiety levels, even milder anxiety levels, including levels that do not meet full criteria for a diagnosis, can be impairing and cause for concern. There is a need to develop and test viable treatments for these concerning anxiety levels to improve functioning and reduce distress. We present findings from a randomized controlled efficacy trial of attention bias modification treatment (ABMT) and attention control training (ACT) for youths with concerning anxiety levels. Fifty-three clinic-referred youths (29 boys, M age = 9.3 years, SD age = 2.6) were randomized to either ABMT or ACT. ABMT and ACT consisted of attention-training trials in a dot-probe task presenting angry and neutral faces; probes appeared in the location of neutral faces in 100% of ABMT trials and 50% of ACT trials. Independent evaluators provided youth anxiety severity ratings; youths and parents provided youth anxiety severity and global impairment ratings; and youths completed measures of attention bias to threat and attention control at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 2-month follow-up. In both arms, anxiety severity and global impairment were significantly reduced at posttreatment and follow-up. At follow-up, anxiety severity and global impairment were significantly lower in ACT compared with ABMT. Attention control, but not attention bias to threat, was significantly improved at follow-up in both arms. Changes in attention control and attention focusing were significantly associated with changes in anxiety severity. Findings support the viability of attention training as a low-intensity treatment for youths with concerning anxiety levels, including levels that do not meet full criteria for a diagnosis. Superior anxiety reduction effects in ACT highlight the critical need for mechanistic research on attention training in this population.

Parent involvement enhances CBTs for anxiety disorders in Hispanic/Latino youth: Acculturation as a moderator.

OBJECTIVE: Although cognitive behavioral treatments (CBTs) are well-established evidence-based interventions for anxiety disorders in youth, there is long-standing underrepresentation of Hispanic/Latino (H/L) families in youth anxiety clinical trials research. The impact of such underrepresentation is that clinicians who work with H/L youth have minimal evidence-based guidance on best practices. The present study moves toward informing best practices for working with H/L youth with anxiety disorders by examining H/L parents' acculturation and enculturation as moderators of youth anxiety outcomes following CBTs. METHOD: Two hundred eleven H/L youths ages 6-16 (M = 9.41 years, SD = 2.39 years; 43.8% female) and their parents were assigned to individual-youth CBT or one of two parent involvement CBTs: one targeted decreasing parent psychological control, the other targeted decreasing parent use of negative reinforcement. Parent acculturation and enculturation were measured at pretreatment; youth anxiety severity was measured at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 12-month follow-up evaluations. RESULTS: Youth anxiety outcomes were enhanced in both parent involvement CBTs compared with individual-youth CBT. Parent acculturation, but not enculturation, significantly moderated outcomes. At lower levels of parent acculturation, youth anxiety outcomes were enhanced in the parent involvement CBT that targeted negative reinforcement. At higher levels of parent acculturation, youth anxiety outcomes were enhanced in the parent involvement CBT that targeted psychological control. CONCLUSIONS: These findings further support the efficacy of CBTs for anxiety disorders in H/L youth and suggest guidance for tailoring parent involvement treatments based on parent acculturation levels. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Anxious Bullies: Parent Distress and Youth Anxiety Interact to Predict Bullying Perpetration.

Early studies conceptualized the "anxious bully" as different from typical bullies due to their anxiety and home problems. Yet, empirical findings are mixed, and no study has reported associations between youth bullying perpetration, youth anxiety, and parent distress in a clinically anxious sample. We assessed 220 youths' anxiety symptom severity, frequency of the bullying perpetration in the past month, and parent levels of distress. Fifty percent of youths endorsed at least one perpetration act and 17% endorsed six or more. Youth anxiety, but not parent distress, was significantly associated with perpetration. We also found a significant interaction such that youth anxiety was positively associated with bullying perpetration when parent distress was high, but not low. Findings fill a glaring knowledge gap regarding this overlooked group of youth, anxious bullies, and provide novel insights into the interplay between youth distress and parent distress in predicting bullying perpetration.

Does Training Parents in Reinforcement Skills or Relationship Skills Enhance Individual Youths' Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety? Outcome, Specificity, and Mediation.

We conducted a dismantling design treatment study comparing individual CBT, CBT targeting parents' reinforcement skills (CBT+Reinf), and CBT targeting parents' relationship skills (CBT+ Relat) in 341 youths with primary anxiety diagnoses. At posttreatment, youths in CBTs with parent involvement had lower anxiety than youths in CBT. At 12-month follow-up, youths in CBT+Relat maintained lower anxiety relative to CBT. At posttreatment, negative reinforcement was significantly lower in CBT+Reinf than CBT+Relat and CBT; negative reinforcement partially mediated youth anxiety reduction. Reducing parental negative reinforcement in CBT+Reinf was associated with lower parental psychological control which also partially mediated youth anxiety reduction. Some of these mediational dynamics continued through follow-up. Targeting concrete behavioral parenting skills, especially negative reinforcement, produced treatment specificity and partial mediation relative to less concrete targeting, and enhanced CBT. Findings highlight complexities in identifying mechanisms through which targeting of parenting skills produces youth anxiety reduction and suggest avenues for future research.

Brief modular approach to target perceived burdensomeness in clinic-referred youth.

INTRODUCTION: Existing CBT protocols for internalizing disorders target thoughts and behaviors related to anxiety and/or depression, but do not explicitly target other identified risk factors for suicide ideation, including perceived burdensomeness toward others. The aims of the current study were to (1) develop a novel, brief module (the "Give program") targeting perceived burdensomeness toward others that can be embedded within existing CBT protocols for youth internalizing disorders, (2) evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of the module with an eye toward intervention refinement, and (3) examine reductions in perceived burdensomeness. METHODS: Participants were 18 clinic-referred youths with anxiety or depressive disorders who endorsed burdensomeness. We used a quasi-experimental interrupted time-series design to evaluate changes in burdensomeness scores following the administration of the module. RESULTS: The module was clinically feasible and well-accepted. Youth burdensomeness scores increased in the first half of the CBT protocol and decreased immediately following the administration of the Give program module. Burdensomeness scores were significantly associated with suicide ideation. CONCLUSION: The current study is the first to develop and evaluate a module targeting burdensomeness in at-risk youth in an outpatient setting, demonstrating that burdensomeness can be efficiently and effectively targeted within existing evidence-based treatment protocols for internalizing disorders in youth.

Directional effects of parent and child anxiety 1 year following treatment of child anxiety, and the mediational role of parent psychological control.

BACKGROUND: We leveraged a recent efficacy trial to investigate directionality between parent anxiety and child anxiety at posttreatment and 12-month follow-up, and the potential role of parent psychological control as a mediator. We also explored child age and sex as moderators. METHOD: Two-hundred and fifty-four children were randomized to individual cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or to one of two CBT arms with parent involvement. Parent anxiety was not a treatment target in any of the three arms. RESULTS: Child anxiety at posttreatment was associated with parent anxiety and psychological control at 12-month follow-up, providing evidence of child-to-parent directionality. Parent anxiety at posttreatment was associated indirectly with child anxiety at 12-month follow-up through associations with parent psychological control, providing evidence of parent-to-child directionality. At posttreatment, parent psychological control contemporaneously mediated the relation between parent and child anxiety. Neither child age nor sex moderated any association. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight the directional effects between child anxiety, parent anxiety, and psychological control from posttreatment to 12-month follow-up, even when parent anxiety is not a treatment target. Research and clinical implications are discussed, with an emphasis on enhancing durability following treatment effects.

Attending to the Attentional Control Scale for Children: Confirming its factor structure and measurement invariance.

The Attentional Control Scale for Children (ACS-C) is a widely used self-report questionnaire that measures attentional control in youth. Previous research examined factor-structure and validation of the ACS-C and yielded a 2-factor structure with Attentional Focusing and Attentional Shifting subscales. This study used a confirmatory factor analysis in a large, ethnically diverse sample of clinic-referred anxious youth (N = 442, ages 7-16 years) to compare model fit of three models, the original two-factor model of the ACS-C, a two-factor model of a modified ACS-C (two items re-assigned from Attentional Focusing to Attentional Shifting, three items removed from Attentional Focusing, and two items removed from Attentional Shifting), and a single-factor model. Results reveal best model fit for the two-factor modified ACS-C. This model had strong factorial invariance across sex, partial invariance across ethnicity, and was variant across age. Also, total and subscale scores for the two-factor modified ACS-C correlated with anxiety and depression symptom scale scores, supporting its concurrent validity. Findings confirm the two-factor structure of the modified ACS-C. Future research implications relating to attentional control in children are discussed.

A Cost Analysis of a Stepped Care Treatment Approach for Anxiety Disorders in Youth.

To address the high demand for youth anxiety treatment, researchers have begun to evaluate stepped care approaches to use limited resources efficiently. Quantifying cost savings can inform policy decisions about optimal ways to use limited resources. This study presents a cost analysis of a stepped care treatment approach for anxiety disorders in youth. Youths (N = 112) completed an 8-session computer-administered attention bias modification treatment (Step 1), and families were given the option to "step up" to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT; Step 2). Stepped care treatment cost estimates were based on (a) resources used in treatment (i.e., clinician/paraprofessional time, equipment/materials) and (b) Medicaid reimbursement rates for clinician and paraprofessional time. We compared these two cost estimates with a hypothetical standard treatment approach for youth anxiety disorders: CBT only. We also tested predictive models to determine whether they could guide decisions about which youths, based on baseline characteristics, should be assigned to stepped care or directly to CBT only to avoid the costs associated with Step 1. Compared to a hypothetical standard CBT approach, the stepped care treatment was associated with an overall cost savings of 44.4% for the Medicaid reimbursement model and 47.7% for the resource cost model. The predictive models indicated that assigning all youths to stepped care would be more cost-effective than assigning certain youths directly to CBT only. This study provides the first evidence that a stepped care treatment approach for youth anxiety is associated with substantial cost savings compared with a standard CBT.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Attention Bias Modification Treatment in Youth With Treatment-Resistant Anxiety Disorders.

OBJECTIVE: Randomized clinical trials of augmentation strategies for youth with treatment-resistant anxiety disorders do not exist. This report presents findings from an efficacy trial of attention bias modification treatment (ABMT) as an augment for this population compared with attention control training (ACT). METHOD: Sixty-four youths (34 boys; mean age 11.7 years) who continued to meet for anxiety diagnoses after completing cognitive-behavioral therapy were randomized to ABMT or ACT. ABMT and ACT consisted of dot-probe attention training trials presenting angry and neutral faces; probes appeared in the location of neutral faces on 100% of trials in ABMT and 50% of trials in ACT. Independent evaluators, youths, and parents completed ratings of youth anxiety severity, and youths completed measures of attention bias to threat and attention control at pretreatment, post-treatment, and 2-month follow-up. RESULTS: The 2 arms showed significant decreases in anxiety severity, with no differences between arms. Specifically, across informants, anxiety severity was significantly decreased at post-treatment and decreases were maintained at follow-up. Primary anxiety disorder diagnostic recovery combined across arms was 50% at post-treatment and 58% at follow-up. Attention control, but not attention bias to threat, was significantly improved at post-treatment in the 2 arms. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to show anxiety can be decreased in youth who did not respond to cognitive-behaviorial therapy, and that the anxiety-decreasing effect is found using these 2 attention training contingency schedules. These findings and increases in attention control in the 2 arms raise intriguing questions about mechanisms of decreasing anxiety in treatment-resistant youth with attention training that require further research. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION INFORMATION: Attention Bias Modification Training for Child Anxiety CBT Nonresponders; https://clinicaltrials.gov/; NCT01819311.

Group- versus Parent-Involvement CBT for Childhood Anxiety Disorders: Treatment Specificity and Long-term Recovery Mediation.

OBJECTIVE: Treatment specificity and long-term recovery mediation of peer-involvement group cognitive behavioral therapy (GCBT) and parent-involvement CBT (PCBT) were investigated for youth anxiety disorders. METHOD: 240 youths with primary anxiety diagnoses participated in a randomized controlled efficacy trial. Youth anxiety and peer variables/mediators (positive peer-youth relationships; social skills), and parent variables/mediators (psychological control; negative parent-youth relationships) were assessed. RESULTS: At posttreatment and 12-month follow up, positive peer-youth relationships were significantly higher in GCBT than PCBT (specificity). At posttreatment, not follow up, parental psychological control was significantly lower in PCBT than GCBT (specificity). Parental psychological control and positive peer-youth relationships were putative mediators. The two CBTs produced similar anxiety reductions through different mechanisms. CONCLUSIONS: CBT targets show specificity and mediation, providing insight into specific mechanisms through which GCBT and PCBT bring about anxiety reduction and guidance for streamlining these CBTs in practice.

The impact of treatment delivery format on response to cognitive behaviour therapy for preadolescent children with anxiety disorders.

BACKGROUND: Several delivery formats of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for child anxiety have been proposed, however, there is little consensus on the optimal delivery format. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the impact of the child's primary anxiety diagnosis on changes in clinical severity (of the primary problem) during individual CBT, group CBT and guided parent-led CBT. The secondary goal was to investigate the impact of the child's primary anxiety diagnosis on rates of remission for the three treatment formats. METHODS: A sample of 1,253 children (5-12 years; Mage = 9.3, SD = 1.7) was pooled from CBT trials carried out at 10 sites. Children had a primary diagnosis of generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SoAD), specific phobia (SP) or separation anxiety disorder (SAD). Children and parents completed a semistructured clinical interview to assess the presence and severity of DSM-IV psychiatric disorders at preintervention, postintervention and follow-up. Linear mixture modelling was used to evaluate the primary research question and logistic modelling was used to investigate the secondary research question. RESULTS: In children with primary GAD, SAD or SoAD, there were no significant differences between delivery formats. However, children with primary SP showed significantly larger reductions in clinical severity following individual CBT compared to group CBT and guided parent-led CBT. The results were mirrored in the analysis of remission responses with the exception that individual CBT was no longer superior to group CBT for children with a primary SP. The difference between individual and group was not significant when follow-up data were examined separately. CONCLUSIONS: Data show there may be greater clinical benefit by allocating children with a primary SP to individual CBT, although future research on cost-effectiveness is needed to determine whether the additional clinical benefits justify the additional resources required.

Parental acculturation level moderates outcome in peer-involved and parent-involved CBT for anxiety disorders in Latino youth.

Cognitive behavioral therapies (CBTs) are efficacious treatments for anxiety disorders in Latino youth. However, there is a gap in knowledge about moderators of CBT outcomes in Latino youth. This study addresses this gap by examining parental acculturation as a moderator of youth anxiety outcomes in a randomized controlled trial of parent-involved CBT (CBT/P) and peer-involved group CBT (GCBT) in 139 Latino youth (ages 6 to 16 years; mean age = 9.68 years). Comparable youth anxiety reduction effects were found for CBT/P and GCBT. Parental acculturation to majority US culture, but not identification with country of origin, significantly moderated youth anxiety outcomes: at low levels of parental acculturation to majority US culture, youth posttreatment anxiety scores were lower in GCBT than CBT/P; at high levels of parental acculturation to majority US culture, youth posttreatment anxiety scores were lower in CBT/P than GCBT. These findings provide further evidence for the efficacy of CBTs for anxiety disorders in Latino youth and also provide guidance for moving toward personalization of CBTs' selection depending on parental acculturation levels.

Can less be more? Open trial of a stepped care approach for child and adolescent anxiety disorders.

This open trial presents a stepped care treatment approach for youths with anxiety disorders. In Step 1, 124 youths (65 girls; M age=9.7years) participated in a low intensity computer administered attention bias modification (ABM) protocol. Statistically significant reductions in youth anxiety severity were found following Step 1. Youths and parents were then given the option to not continue with further treatment or step up to a higher intensity cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) protocol (Step 2). Of 112 youths who completed Step 1, 67 (59.8%) discontinued treatment and 45 (40.2%) stepped up. Co-occurring ADHD and higher anxiety severity at baseline were significantly associated with the decision to step up. Of those youths who completed Step 2, additional statistically significant reductions in youth anxiety severity were found. Across the entire protocol, 68.6% of youths were rated as either very much improved or much improved on the Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement scale. In a hypothetical comparison in which all youths received CBT alone, the stepped care protocol resulted in approximately 50% less time in treatment sessions. These findings support the promise of initiating youth anxiety disorder treatment with low intensity treatment and then stepping up to higher intensity treatment as needed.

Attentional Control Scale for Children: Factor Structure and Concurrent Validity Among Children and Adolescents Referred for Anxiety Disorders.

OBJECTIVE: The present study examined the factor structure and concurrent validity of the Attentional Control Scale for Children (ACS-C; Muris, de Jong, & Engelen, 2004), a youth self-rating scale of attentional control. METHOD: A multisource assessment approach was used with 186 children and adolescents referred to an anxiety disorders specialty clinic. RESULTS: Exploratory factor analysis yielded a 2-factor structure with internally consistent and moderately correlated subscales of Attentional Focusing and Attentional Shifting. Total ACS-C and subscale scores demonstrated significant associations with youth and parent ratings of youth anxiety symptoms, youth self ratings of depressive symptoms, and youth diagnosis of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. CONCLUSIONS: These findings support use of the ACS-C as a self-rating scale of attentional control among referred youth. Future research is encouraged to examine retest reliability of the ACS-C and to evaluate whether its internal structure could be enhanced by removing or modifying items that performed poorly.

Non-replication of the association between 5HTTLPR and response to psychological therapy for child anxiety disorders.

BACKGROUND: We previously reported an association between 5HTTLPR genotype and outcome following cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) in child anxiety (Cohort 1). Children homozygous for the low-expression short-allele showed more positive outcomes. Other similar studies have produced mixed results, with most reporting no association between genotype and CBT outcome. AIMS: To replicate the association between 5HTTLPR and CBT outcome in child anxiety from the Genes for Treatment study (GxT Cohort 2, n = 829). METHOD: Logistic and linear mixed effects models were used to examine the relationship between 5HTTLPR and CBT outcomes. Mega-analyses using both cohorts were performed. RESULTS: There was no significant effect of 5HTTLPR on CBT outcomes in Cohort 2. Mega-analyses identified a significant association between 5HTTLPR and remission from all anxiety disorders at follow-up (odds ratio 0.45, P = 0.014), but not primary anxiety disorder outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: The association between 5HTTLPR genotype and CBT outcome did not replicate. Short-allele homozygotes showed more positive treatment outcomes, but with small, non-significant effects. Future studies would benefit from utilising whole genome approaches and large, homogenous samples.

Moving to Second-Stage Treatments Faster: Identifying Midtreatment Tailoring Variables for Youth with Anxiety Disorders.

The current study presents an approach for empirically identifying tailoring variables at midtreatment of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) protocols for youth with anxiety disorders that can be used to guide moves to second-stage treatments. Using 2 independent data sets (Study 1 N = 240, M age = 9.86 years; Study 2 N = 341; M age = 9.53 years), we examined treatment response patterns after 8 sessions of CBT (i.e., CBT midtreatment). We identified and replicated 3 classes of response patterns at CBT midtreatment: Early Responders, Partial Responders, and Nonresponders. Class membership at CBT midtreatment was predictive of outcome at CBT posttreatment. Receiver operating characteristics curves were used to derive guidelines to optimize accuracy of assignment to classes at CBT midtreatment. These findings support the promise of treatment response at CBT midtreatment to identify tailoring variables for use in abbreviating first-stage treatments and facilitating moves to second-stage treatments.