Cognitive-behaviour therapy with youth: advances, challenges, and future directions

Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is one of the most widely-researched therapies for children and adolescents. In this paper, the general tenets of CBT are described, followed by a review of the treatment outcome literature. Overall, there is strong empirical support for CBT with internalizing disorders such as anxiety and depressive disorders whereas more moderate empirical support exists for CBT with externalizing disorders such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorder. The relative efficacy of individual, family, and group forms of CBT is also examined. Finally, future directions for research on CBT are discussed, including (a) determining the focal person(s) of treatment; (b) the importance of field effectiveness trials; and (c) the integration of CBT with other approaches (e.g. function analytic techniques, acceptance-based approaches).