Cognitive Behavior Therapy in the School Setting: A Case Study of A Nine Year Old Anxious Boy With Extreme Blushing - Cognitive Behavior Therapy in the School Setting: A Case Study of A Nine Year Old Anxious Boy With Extreme Blushing - Open Access Pub

Within the field of school psychology there is a gap between research and practice, caused by difficulties in translating the programs from research to the realities of the school setting. Illustrations of real-life cases may help school psychologists gain insight into the application of interventions. The purpose of this study was to describe an example of small group cognitive behavior therapy in the school setting. It concerned test anxiety with extreme blushing. A single subject case study of a nine year old Dutch boy was described. Interviews, observations and questionnaires were used for evaluation, as well as a standard national achievement test. The results indicate that the test anxiety and blushing decreased and on the achievement test three years later, performance was good. As it concerns a case study, the results are discussed tentatively. It was concluded that the intervention was successful without alterations to the program. This study provides an illustration of research put into practice. DOI10.14302/issn.2476-1710.jdt-16-1317 This article describes a successful intervention for a nine year old boy presenting emerging test anxiety and extreme blushing. The treatment consisted of a group-based cognitive therapy (CBT) in the school setting. This case-study illustrates how CBT can be applied within primary school addressing test anxiety when the concern is not only on the level of an emerging mental health problem, but also on a specific symptom. Mental health problems are a major concern in primary education because they negatively affect socio-emotional as well as academic school functioning. Within the ecological context perspective of Bronfenbrenner schools represent a key component of the child’s microsystem: they are one of the most proximal influences on a child, and understandably, represent the primary setting where children show impairment due to mental health problems 1. Research demonstrates that school-based cognitive-behavioral interventions that focus on small groups or individual students yield improvements in emotional, behavioral, social, and academic functioning 2. Nevertheless, within the field of school psychology there is a gap between research and practice that seems to be caused by difficulties in translating the programs from research to the realities of the school setting 3. Illustrations of real-life cases may help school psychologists gain insight into the application of interventions. Test anxiety refers to feeling tense, fearful, and worried in evaluative situations4. It has formally been defined by Dusek as