Measuring Traumatic Reactions in Palestinian Children: A Psychometric Assessment of the Children Revised Impact of Event Scale-Arabic Version (CRIES-13A)

Veronese, Guido; Pepe, Alessandro

doi:10.1007/s10578-020-01113-2

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Trained local educators and social workers were asked to administer the questionnaires and assess the children directly at the camp where they were based. The data collection settings were designed to offer a relational space (Hydén, 2014) where participants could feel free to express their representations and opinions (Veronese et al, 2016;Veronese & Pepe, 2021). Participants were aware that they were free to withdraw from the study at any time.…”

Section: Sample and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child Psychological Adjustment to War and Displacement: A Discriminant Analysis of Resilience and Trauma in Syrian Refugee Children

2021

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The ongoing war in Syria has led to the displacement of 12 million people since 2011, with minors representing 40% of all refugees. Syrian children living in refugee camps are at risk of developing a wide range of mental health problems, given their previous and ongoing exposure to episodes of violence, disruption of family ties, and discontinuous access to education. In this study, we drew on the salutogenic paradigm to investigate whether, and to what extent, high/low levels of resilience were associated with other indicators of mental health and post-traumatic response in Syrian children living in refugee camps. The sample was composed of 311 Syrian children living in Jordanian refugee camps as a consequence of the war in Syria. We administered quantitative self-report measures to assess participants’ exposure to trauma, individual levels of resilience, and mental health, performing discriminant analysis to examine the association between resilience and trauma/mental health. Syrian children living in Jordanian refugee camps reported intense exposure to traumatic events. The linear discriminant equation supported adoption of the function [Wilk’s Lambda (Λ = 0.827)]: lower levels of resilience were associated with trauma symptoms (re-experiencing, avoidance, and hyperarousal) and emotional problems, while higher levels of resilience were associated with pro-social behaviours. The findings of the present study suggest that resilience acts as a protective factor buffering children from the consequences of trauma and challenging life conditions. We discuss the implications for interventions designed to promote the wellbeing and mental health of children living in refugee camps.

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Section: Sample and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child Psychological Adjustment to War and Displacement: A Discriminant Analysis of Resilience and Trauma in Syrian Refugee Children

2021

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“…The self-report scale consists of 13 items measuring intrusive memories, avoidance, and arousal. Items are scored on a 4-point scale (0 = not at all, 1 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 5 = often), with a score range of 0 to 65 and higher total scores reflecting more severe symptoms of posttraumatic stress; this scale has sound psychometric properties with Middle Eastern youth [24]. Wellbeing was measured using the self-reported Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS), which consists of 14 items exploring the child's thoughts and feelings in the past week [25] and has been previously used in Jordan with undergraduate students but not validated to date with Jordanian young adolescents [26].…”

Section: Plos Medicinementioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of a brief group behavioural intervention on psychological distress in young adolescent Syrian refugees: A randomised controlled trial

et al. 2022

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Background Millions of young adolescents in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) affected by humanitarian crises experience elevated rates of poor mental health. There is a need for scalable programs that can improve the mental health of young adolescents. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a nonspecialist delivered group-based intervention (Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions (EASE)) to improve young adolescents’ mental health. Methods and findings In this single-blind, parallel, controlled trial, Syrian refugees aged 10 to 14 years in Jordan were identified through screening of psychological distress as defined by scores ≥15 on the Paediatric Symptom Scale. Participants were randomised to either EASE or enhanced usual care (EUC) involving referral to local psychosocial services (on a 1:1.6 ratio). Participants were aware of treatment allocation but assessors were blinded. Primary outcomes were scores on the Paediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC; internalising, externalising, and attentional difficulty scales) assessed at week 0, 9 weeks, and 3 months after treatment (primary outcome time point). It was hypothesised that EASE would result in greater reductions on internalising symptoms than EUC. Secondary outcomes were depression, posttraumatic stress, well-being, functioning, school belongingness, and caregivers’ parenting and mental health. Between June 2019 and January 2020, 1,842 young adolescent refugees were screened for eligibility on the basis of psychological distress. There were 520 adolescents (28.2%) who screened positive, of whom 471 (90.6%) agreed to enter the trial. Overall, 185 were assigned to EASE and 286 to EUC, and 169 and 254 were retained at 3 months for EASE and EUC, respectively. Intent-to-treat analyses indicated that at 3 months, EASE resulted in greater reduction on the PSC-internalising scale than EUC (estimated mean difference 0.69, 95% CI 0.19 to 1.19; p = 0.007; effect size, 0.38) but there were no differences for PSC-externalising (estimated mean difference 0.24, 95% CI −0.43 to 0.91; p = 0.49; effect size, −0.10), PSC-attentional problem (estimated mean difference −0.01, 95% CI −0.51 to 0.54; p = 0.97; effect size, −0.01) scores, or on depression, posttraumatic stress, well-being, functioning, or school belongingness. Relative to EUC, caregivers in EASE had less psychological distress (estimated mean difference 1.95, 95% CI 0.71 to 3.19; p = 0.002) and inconsistent disciplinary parenting (mean difference 1.54, 95% CI 1.03 to 2.05; p < 0.001). Secondary analyses that (a) focused on adolescents with probable internalising disorders; (b) completed the 3-month assessment; and (c) controlled for trauma exposure did not alter the primary results. Mediation analysis indicated that for caregivers in the EASE condition, reduction in inconsistent disciplinary parenting was associated with reduced attentional (β = 0.11, SE 0.07; 95% CI 0.003, 0.274) and internalising (β = 0.11, SE 0.07; 95% CI 0.003, 0.274) problems in their children. No adverse events were attributable to the intervention. A limitation was that EUC was not matched to EASE in terms of facilitator attention or group involvement. Conclusions EASE led to reduced internalising problems in young refugee adolescents and was associated with reduced distress and less inconsistent disciplinary parenting in caregivers. This intervention has the potential as a scalable intervention to mitigate young adolescents’ emotional difficulties in LMIC. Trial registration Prospectively registered at Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: ACTRN12619000341123.

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“…The Children's Impact of Event Scale (CRIES-13) (Horowitz et al, 1979) in its Arabic version (Veronese and Pepe, 2021) measures traumatic responses in individuals who have experienced distressing events, mainly by assessing the extent to which they re-experience or avoid thinking about the traumatic event itself. Four items measure intrusion (when the traumatic event is persistently re-experienced via unwanted perturbing memories, thoughts, images and flashbacks), four items evaluate avoidance (i.e.…”

Section: Instruments and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Palestinian children living amidst political and military violence deploy active protection strategies against psychological trauma: How agency can mitigate traumatic stress via life satisfaction

Veronese

Cavazzoni

Jaradah

et al. 2021

J Child Health Care

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This exploratory study assessed the association between agency and life satisfaction, as well as the potential for life satisfaction, in its turn, to alleviate trauma symptoms and reduce negative emotion in a group of children exposed to war and military violence in Palestine. Two hundred and fifty Palestinian children, who had been recruited at primary schools in urban and rural areas, and refugee camps, completed the Multilevel Student’s Life Satisfaction Scale, Children’s Hope Scale (CHS), Children’s Impact of Event Scale (CRIES) and Positive and Negative Affect Scales. We performed structural equation modelling to evaluate the effects of agency on negative emotions and trauma symptoms via life satisfaction. The participants appeared to play an agentic role in mobilizing their own life satisfaction, and the more satisfied they were with their lives, the less they suffered from trauma symptoms. In terms of clinical practice, we advocate more active and participatory approaches to fostering children’s agency, a complex construct in need of further investigation via mixed-method quanti-qualitative and ethnographic studies.

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Measuring Traumatic Reactions in Palestinian Children: A Psychometric Assessment of the Children Revised Impact of Event Scale-Arabic Version (CRIES-13A)

Cited by 12 publications

References 55 publications

Child Psychological Adjustment to War and Displacement: A Discriminant Analysis of Resilience and Trauma in Syrian Refugee Children

Child Psychological Adjustment to War and Displacement: A Discriminant Analysis of Resilience and Trauma in Syrian Refugee Children

Effectiveness of a brief group behavioural intervention on psychological distress in young adolescent Syrian refugees: A randomised controlled trial

Palestinian children living amidst political and military violence deploy active protection strategies against psychological trauma: How agency can mitigate traumatic stress via life satisfaction

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