Jocelynne Gordon

Publications (2)10.37 Total impact

• Source

  Available from: Eleonora Gullone

  Article: Nighttime fears of children and adolescents: frequency, content, severity, harm expectations, disclosure, and coping behaviours.

  Jocelynne Gordon, Neville King, Eleonora Gullone, Peter Muris, Thomas H Ollendick
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  ABSTRACT: The present school-based study investigated the nighttime fears of 511 children and adolescents, aged 8-16 years. Participants were assessed using a structured interview about the frequency, content, severity, harm expectations, coping strategies, and disclosure of nighttime fears. Results indicated that nighttime fears are a common experience, with nearly two-thirds (64.2%) of children and adolescents reporting nighttime fears. Fear of intruders/home invasion was the most frequently reported nighttime fear. Females more frequently reported nighttime fears than males (72.9% and 54.6%, respectively) and a greater number of children reported nighttime fears compared to adolescents (79.4% and 48.8%, respectively). Nighttime fears were given moderate severity ratings, and harm expectations were most strongly associated with 'personal security' fears. Respondents reported a variety of coping strategies to manage their nighttime fears with self-control/distraction techniques being the most common. Most respondents reported disclosing their nighttime fear(s) to another person. The clinical implications of these findings and the methodological limitations are discussed.
  Behaviour Research and Therapy 11/2007; 45(10):2464-72. · 3.30 Impact Factor
• Article: Treatment of children's nighttime fears: the need for a modern randomised controlled trial.

  Jocelynne Gordon, Neville J King, Eleonora Gullone, Peter Muris, Thomas H Ollendick
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  ABSTRACT: Children's nighttime fears are common and cause significant interference to the child's functioning as well as causing much distress for the child and family. Therefore, effective and cost-efficient interventions are urgently needed by mental health professionals and counsellors. The authors review 29 studies, which investigated the efficacy of psychosocial treatment for children's nighttime fears. Most studies employed multiple baseline across subject designs or between group designs and most employed cognitive-behavioral techniques (i.e., desensitisation, emotive imagery, cognitive self-instruction, and reinforcement procedures). Although multi-method, informant assessments were not always conducted, in most studies rapid reduction of nighttime fears was typically achieved after only a few sessions with maintenance of gains. On the basis of our review, we make recommendations about assessment and intervention issues for the effective treatment of children's nighttime fears. Finally, future research directions are discussed including the need for a modern randomised clinical trial to more fully investigate treatment efficacy and the role of non-specific treatment factors.
  Clinical Psychology Review 02/2007; 27(1):98-113. · 7.07 Impact Factor