This study evaluated a community-based grief and trauma intervention for children conducted postdisaster. Fifty six children (7 to 12 years old) who reported moderate to severe levels of symptoms of posttraumatic stress were randomly assigned to group or individual treatment. Treatment consisted of a manualized 10-session grief- and trauma-focused intervention and a parent meeting. Measures of disaster-related exposure, posttraumatic stress symptoms, depression, traumatic grief, and distress were administered at preintervention, postintervention, and 3 weeks postintervention. There was a significant decrease in all outcome measures over time, and there were no differences in outcomes between children who participated in group intervention and those who participated in individual intervention. Results suggest that this intervention using either treatment modality may be effective for addressing childhood grief and trauma postdisaster.
Within the limitations of this study, computer-assisted CBT is an effective and feasible treatment for anxious children when used in community mental health centers by CBT-naïve clinicians.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.