Psychological distress, anxiety and depression are common in adolescence, and even more so following traumatic events. On Friday 15 March 2019, two mosques in Ōtautahi, Christchurch were targeted in an act of terrorism, resulting in 71 people being injured and 51 people being shot dead. This has had widespread repercussions in the Muslim and wider community in Christchurch and New Zealand. Uptake of a response pathway set up by community and district health board groups has been low despite reports of high levels of distress in the adolescent population. The proposed study offers a transdiagnostic group treatment approach (ie. Targeting a broad range of emotional difficulties) for teenagers from a community impacted by the March 15th shootings, incorporating well-evidenced transdiagnostic treatment principles into an Islamic Psychology framework to address the local population's need. We will determine the feasibility and effectiveness of this approach in increasing wellbeing in teenagers. We will run gender-specific treatment groups (8 participants in each group) recruited from the community, with one individual session (for information and consent) and 6 group sessions. We will measure symptoms of emotional difficulties, trauma symptoms and functioning at baseline, end of treatment and at 3 months follow-up. In addition, we will check in weekly with participants to monitor for any increased distress. We will also measure parental distress to explore whether an intervention for adolescents has an impact on parental wellbeing.
Age range
12 Years – 19 Years
Sex
ALL
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Total problems score
Timeframe: three time points - initial individual session at week 1, final group session at 7 weeks and 3 month follow up (week 19).
Emotional problems subscore
Timeframe: three time points - initial individual session at week 1, final group session at 7 weeks and 3 month follow up (week 19).
Trauma symptoms
Timeframe: three time points - initial individual session at week 1, final group session at 7 weeks and 3 month follow up (week 19).
Somatic Symptom burden
Timeframe: three time points - initial individual session at week 1, final group session at 7 weeks and 3 month follow up (week 19).
Functional assessment
Timeframe: three time points - initial individual session at week 1, final group session at 7 weeks and 3 month follow up (week 19).
Time to recruitment
Timeframe: Measured before first group session at week 3.
Implementation
Timeframe: Each session will be audio-recorded and scored (at individual session at week 1, weekly group sessions weeks 3- 7, and 3 month follow up/week 19)
Psychological flexibility
Timeframe: three time points - initial individual session at week 1, final group session at 7 weeks and 3 month follow up (week 19).
Awareness of experience
Timeframe: three time points - initial individual session at week 1, final group session at 7 weeks and 3 month follow up (week 19).