Bibliotherapy Combined With Games to Reduce Fear of the Dark in Young Children

NCT ID: NCT07067320

Last Updated: 2025-07-16

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 39 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2023-04-24
• Study Completion Date: 2024-10-18

Brief Summary

Intense fear of the dark is a common issue among children, which can interfere with their daily functioning at family, social, and academic levels. This study aims to analyse the effectiveness of a psychotherapeutic intervention based on bibliotherapy combined with play to overcome the fear of the dark in children between 4 and 8 years old. A total of 38 children participated, who were assigned to the experimental and control conditions on the waiting list. The bibliotherapy intervention in the experimental condition involved reading a book and playing the games proposed in each chapter. The intervention was applied by parents at home with their children (during 4-5 weeks) and contained cognitive-behavioural techniques, such as gradual in vivo exposure, relaxation techniques, modelling and positive reinforcement, among others. It is expected that children's nighttime fears will decrease significantly and there will be significant improvements in nighttime behaviour.

Conditions

Bibliotherapy; Fear of the Dark; Nighttime Fears

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NON_RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Experimental group receiving bibliotherapeutic intervention

Bibliotherapy combined with games to overcome fear of the dark

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Bibliotherapy combined with games to overcome fear of the dark

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Bibliotherapy combined with games, applied by parents at home. Treatment based on cognitive-behavioural techniques. Duration: 4-5 weeks. Experimental group recived this bibliotherapeutic intervention.

Waiting list control group (receiving intervention at the end of treatment with experimental group)

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Bibliotherapy combined with games to overcome fear of the dark

Bibliotherapy combined with games, applied by parents at home. Treatment based on cognitive-behavioural techniques. Duration: 4-5 weeks. Experimental group recived this bibliotherapeutic intervention.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Being between 4 and 8 years old
• Obtaining a score of 32 or higher on the Parent Version of the Nighttime Fears Scale (NFS-P; Orgilés et al., 2024)

Exclusion Criteria

• Not being within the established age range
• Scoring less than 31on the Parent Version of the Nighttime Fears Scale (NFS-P; Orgilés et al., 2024)

• Minimum Eligible Age: 3 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 8 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

Universidad Miguel Hernandez de Elche

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Mireia Orgilés Amorós

Dr.

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

Universidad Miguel Hernández

Elche, Alicante, Spain

Countries

Spain

Other Identifiers

DPS.MOA.210423

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id