The Lancet published the latest research of SSDPP: social workers' group intervention has a significant effect on alleviating children's psychological trauma

The research findings were published online on February 2, 2023 in The Lancet Regional Health Western Pacific, titled "Effectiveness of a school-based, lay counselor-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy for Chinese children with posttraumatic stress symptoms: a randomized controlled trial". The first author of this paper is Li Jina, who got a Master's degree in Social Work and a PhD in public management at SSDPP, and is now a postdoctoral fellow of the State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning. The corresponding author is Qu Zhiyong, a teacher of SSDPP.

Research Methods:

From 2019 to 2020, a total of 234 trauma-affected children from six primary schools in Henan Province were randomly assigned to the randomized controlled trial. After random grouping, 118 children in the intervention group received a two-month PCPI group intervention delivered by lay counselors, while 116 children in the control group received usual school services provided by psychology teachers. The two groups of children received the evaluation of the PTSD and secondary outcome variables (depression, generalized anxiety) at baseline, post test, and 3 months after intervention. At baseline, there was no significant difference in demographics and clinical psychology characteristics between the two groups.

Research Findings:

（1）PCPI group intervention can significantly reduce the severity of PTSD, depression, and generalized anxiety of children in China

Data analysis found that children in the intervention group scored lower than those in the control group on the following symptoms: PTSD-RI-5 PTSD（30.98 [17.22] vs 39.22 [21.10]，P = 0.001），PCL-5 PTSD（28.78 [18.36] vs 38.04 [19.62]，P = 0.001), depression（5.52 [3.99] vs 7.96 [4.41]，P < 0.001）and generalized anxiety（7.23 [4.00] vs 8.64 [4.78]，P = 0.02）. At the 3-month follow-up, these two groups showed a similar level of symptoms.

As shown in Table 1, the remission rate of PCL-5PTSD in the intervention group was 42.86%, and more children in the intervention group no longer met the diagnostic criteria for PCL-5PTSD (OR=0.36), χ 2=13.10, P<0.001), while="" the="" remission="" rate="" of="" pcl-5ptsd="" in="" control="" group="" children="" was="" only="" 13.54="">

Table 1. Differences in the remission of PCL-5 PTSD of the two groups at baseline, posttest, and 3-month follow-up

（2）Lay counselors demonstrate high fidelity during the PCPI intervention process

When lay counselors delivered PCPI group interventions, the average content fidelity of all topics reached over 80%, and 72% of the group activities reached an excellent level of content fidelity. This indicates that lay counselors have the ability to master the intervention program and deliver PCPI group intervention.

Conclusion:

The intervention program (PCPI) developed by the research group for 7 times (supported by three interventions for individual cases) can significantly reduce the severity of children's psychological trauma in China, and this intervention program is simple and easy to implement, which can be delivered by trained social workers in the school environment. Of course, more research is needed to further validate its long-term effects.

This program helps improve the accessibility of intervention services for trauma-affected children in China, provides a new solution to alleviate the psychological distress of trauma-affected children, and offers a new idea for exploring the effective supply of intervention services for children's mental health in China.

Article Information

Effectiveness of a school-based, lay counselor-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy for Chinese children with posttraumatic stress symptoms: a randomized controlled trial

-ScienceDirect

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666606523000172

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanwpc.2023.100699

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