Does clown therapy really help anxious kids?

This study has a number of flaws that undermine the conclusions.Because the control group received no intervention at all, we've no way of identifying the active ingredient of the clown intervention. Was it the jokes? The magic? Merely the distraction of meeting strangers? From a more technical perspective, an unfortunate detail was that children in the clown group started off a lot more anxious than children in the control group. Perhaps the clown group children showed a reduction in anxiety, not because of the clowns, but simply because acute anxiety can only be sustained for so long. No joke - we really need more robust research before concluding that clown therapy is beneficial._________________________________ Dionigi A, Sangiorgi D, and Flangini R (2014). Clown intervention to reduce preoperative anxiety in children and parents: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of health psychology, 19 (3), 369-80 PMID: 23362335 Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Source Type: blogs