Citation

Pfefferbaum B, Nitiéma P, Newman E. Behav. Sci. (Basel) 2021; 11(2): e25.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/bs11020025

PMID

33670239

Abstract

Over the last 20 years, numerous interventions have been developed and evaluated for use with children exposed to mass trauma with six publications reporting meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials of child mass trauma interventions using inactive controls to examine intervention effects on posttraumatic stress, depression, anxiety, and functional impairment. The current report reviews the results of these meta-analytic studies to examine the status of the evidence for child mass trauma mental health interventions and to evaluate potential moderators of intervention effect and implications for practice. The meta-analyses reviewed for the current report revealed a small to medium overall effect of interventions on posttraumatic stress, a non-statistically significant to small overall effect on depression, a non-statistically significant overall effect on anxiety, and a small overall effect on functional impairment. The subgroup analyses suggest that interventions should be matched to the populations being served and to the context. Additional research is needed to tailor future interventions to further address outcomes other than posttraumatic stress including depression, anxiety, and functional impairment.

Language: en

Keywords

child; posttraumatic stress; depression; anxiety; disaster; terrorism; functional impairment; mass trauma; mental health intervention; political violence