Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Literature Review

I. What the author said

In this article, the central question is: what is the effectiveness of trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy provided by nonclinical personnel in minimizing behaviour problems, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress and increasing pro-social conduct in a grouping of sexually exploited girls who have been affected by war? The hypothesis in the study is that trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy is highly effectual in decreasing the symptoms of post-traumatic stress but not very effectual in reducing anxiety and depression, prosocial behaviour and conduct problems.

In testing the hypothesis, the authors carried out a parallel-design, single-blind, controlled, randomized trial. The sample comprised

Furthermore, the intervention trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy group exhibited an extremely significant improvement in the symptoms of prosocial behaviour, behaviour problems, as well as anxiety and depression. At follow-up which lasted three months, the effect size for the trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy group was –1.57 for prosocial behaviour, 0.95 for conduct problems, 2.45 for anxiety and depression, and 2.04 for symptoms of trauma. The main conclusions which the authors draw are that a culturally modified, group-based, trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy intervention offered by nonclinically trained personnel in Congo brought about a statistically significant, large decrease in the symptoms of posttraumatic stress symptoms as well as psychological difficulties amongst young girls exposed to sexual violence or rape and who had been affected by

(2013) are valid, reliable and reasonable. By being valid, the conclusions can be considered as being believable and credible. The findings are genuine. There is internal validity in that the procedures and instruments utilized in the study measured what they were designed or intended to measure. For instance, in the intervention group, the study subjects – war-affected young women who had been exposed to improper sexual touch and rape – were treated with trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy and this resulted in a decline in their symptoms of posttraumatic stress. In the research study, the new intervention has good internal validity as something that reduces posttraumatic stress. With regard to external validity, the findings of the research study could be generalised outside the current study. The findings could be applied to people, particularly girls, beyond the sample used in the study; that is, beyond the raped, war-affected girls in Congo. The findings could be applied to girls with posttraumatic stress disorder in other settings and countries. Reliability is understood as the repeatability of research results. If the research study by O’Callaghan et al. (2013) were to be carried out another time, it is likely to produce similar outcomes. As such, the data are considered as being reliable. The results are also reasonable since the findings are realistic and sensible. The conclusions relate