title: Effects of a long-term psychosocial nursing intervention on adolescents exposed to catastrophic stress.
abstract: This research tested the effects of a long-term psychosocial nursing intervention designed to decrease mental distress in adolescents following a catastrophic event. Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses conducted the Catastrophic Stress Intervention (CSI) in two South Carolina high schools for three years following Hurricane Hugo. The CSI consisted of nine protocols designed to decrease adolescents' mental distress by increasing their understanding of stress and by enhancing their self-efficacy and social support. Adolescents (N = 1030) were randomized to intervention or control groups and completed one baseline and five postintervention measures of mental distress, self-efficacy, and social support. The hypothesis was that intervention adolescents would have less mental distress than control adolescents. The research also addressed the particular time points at which differences between intervention and control adolescents might be shown. Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance, with exposure to the hurricane, self-efficacy, and social support as control variables, showed that intervention adolescents reported less mental distress than control adolescents at 12, 18, and 24 months but that this difference dissipated by 30 and 36 months. Implications for the CSI and timing of interventions with adolescents after a catastrophic event are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Barnes College of Nursing, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63121, USA. hardins@msx.umsl.edu
authors.forename: Sally Brosz
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Hardin
authors.forename: Sally
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Weinrich
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weinrich
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Garrison
authors.forename: Cheryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Addy
authors.forename: Thomas L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Hardin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000296:Adolescent Psychiatry; D004190:Disasters; D005260:Female; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008134:Long-Term Care; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012657:Self-Help Groups / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012944:Social Support; D013022:South Carolina; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology