Date of Award:

8-2026

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Psychology

Committee Chair(s)

Tyler Renshaw

Committee

Tyler Renshaw

Committee

Gretchen Peacock

Committee

Sara Boghosian

Committee

Jessica Koltz

Committee

Audrey Hoffmann

Abstract

Anxiety and depression are among the most common mental health concerns young people face, and they often interfere with school, friendships, family life, and long-term well-being. Even though effective therapies exist, only about half of youth who need care ever receive it, and among those who do start treatment, the most common total number of sessions a young person attends is one. This gap between what young people need and what they actually receive raises a practical question for the field: can a single, well-designed meeting with a provider produce meaningful change for some youth and families, and what should that meeting look like? This dissertation tested two brief, onetime interventions designed to help young people who were showing early signs of anxiety or depression. The first intervention was delivered online directly to children between the ages of eight and thirteen and taught them to take small steps toward situations they had been avoiding or activities they had stopped enjoying. The second intervention was delivered to parents of children between the ages of seven and twelve and taught parents how to respond to their child's distress in ways that encourage brave and engaged behavior rather than reinforcing avoidance. Each meeting lasted about one hour. Children and parents completed brief daily ratings of how the child was feeling for several weeks before and after the meeting so that change could be tracked carefully for each individual family.

Across both studies, the brief meetings did not produce a consistent enough pattern of improvement to claim that the meeting itself caused change for the group as a whole. However, several individual children and families did show meaningful improvements, and parents and youth alike found the meetings worthwhile and acceptable. The findings suggest that brief, focused meetings hold promise as a low-cost first step in care, but that future programs will likely need to tailor the meeting more closely to the specific reasons each child is struggling rather than to the general label of their concern.

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