| Summary: | 碩士 === 長庚大學 === 臨床行為科學研究所 === 93 === The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) group program on 921 earthquake child survivors with anxiety and depression.
Three 11 years-old girls with anxiety and depression tendency were selected to participate in this CBT group. As residents in one of the 921 earthquake-affected areas, these girls were participants of a longitudinal study conducted by the same research team. The CBT group was conducted in their school and included 8 weekly sessions with 70-80 minutes each. Besides the three target children, there were also five other peer participants in this group. Two graduate students were trained to co-lead this group.
Single-subject ABA design and time series design with pretest, posttest, and follow-up evaluation were used to examine the effectiveness of this CBT group program. Outcome measures included: (1) physical and psychological conditions; (2) anxiety and depression scores; and (3) target behaviors in group.
Methods of data collection consisted of (1) daily self-monitoring of physical and psychological conditions at baseline, intervention, and withdrawal phase; (2) self rating of anxiety and depression at pretreatment, post-treatment, and 4-week follow-up; and (3) observation of target behaviors during group sessions.
After the treatment, there was a reduction in anxiety and depression scores of participants with initial high anxiety and depression tendency. And this positive gain was maintained for two participants at the 4-week follow-up. Although encouraging, this positive finding should be interpreted with cautions given the lack of a control group in this study. In addition, the results that only one participant’s physical and psychological conditions improved at the treatment phase had failed to fully support the effectiveness of this CBT group program. It is found that as the group progressed, the participants seemed to become more active in expressing themselves and engaging in group activity.
Limitations and clinical implications of this study are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.
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