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Psychometric Properties of the Safety Maneuver Scale for Adolescents (SMS-A) and Relationship to Outcomes of a Transdiagnostic Treatment

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Abstract

Safety behaviors are common in anxiety and have been thought to reduce the efficacy of exposure therapy, although some investigations have indicated that safety behaviors may have a non-significant or beneficial impact on exposure efficacy. There have been few investigations of the characteristics and impact of safety behavior use in youth compared to adults, and no known validated, transdiagnostic youth measure of safety behaviors exists. In Study 1, we investigated the psychometric properties of a transdiagnostic measure of adolescent safety behavior use. In Study 2, we examined the relationship between safety behavior use and treatment outcome in 51 anxious and depressed adolescents. Results of Study 1 supported the measure’s psychometric properties, while results of Study 2 revealed that decreased safety behavior use is associated with better treatment outcomes. This investigation supports the importance of safety behavior reduction and provides a tool for further investigating adolescent safety behavior use.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Michael Telch in providing invaluable feedback on this manuscript.

Funding

Study 1 was supported by a Fred C. and Helen Donn Flipse Research Support Award granted to the first author from the University of Miami’s Department of Psychology. Study 2 was supported by a Grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to the second author (K23 MH073946).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado School of Medicine, 13123 E. 16th Avenue, Box B130, Aurora, CO, 80045, USA

    Sarah M. Kennedy

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Miami, 5665 Ponce de Leon Blvd, Coral Gables, FL, 33124, USA

    Jill Ehrenreich-May

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  1. Sarah M. Kennedy
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah M. Kennedy.

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Conflict of interest

The first and second authors of this manuscript receive financial compensation for providing training and consultation in the intervention described in Study 2, the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Adolescents. Additionally, the second author receives financial compensation in the form of royalties from the sale of the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Adolescents.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Kennedy, S.M., Ehrenreich-May, J. Psychometric Properties of the Safety Maneuver Scale for Adolescents (SMS-A) and Relationship to Outcomes of a Transdiagnostic Treatment. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 50, 702–716 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-019-00874-9

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