A teacher-delivered intervention for adolescents exposed to ongoing and intense traumatic war-related stress: a quasi-randomized controlled study.
OBJECTIVE
For the past 8 years, the residents of Sderot-a town in southern Israel-have been exposed to ongoing and intense war-related threat due to daily rocket attacks and mortar shelling from the adjacent Gaza region. This study first evaluates the prevalence of posttraumatic symptomatology in a sample of seventh- and eighth-grade students, and then assesses the efficacy of a universal teacher-delivered skill-oriented and present-focused intervention in preventing and reducing adolescents' posttraumatic stress-related symptoms.


METHODS
In a quasi-randomized controlled trial, 154 seventh- and eighth-grade students with significant levels of war-related exposure were assigned to participate in either a manualized active 16-session intervention (Extended Enhancing Resiliency Amongst Students Experiencing Stress, ERASE-Stress) or a waiting-list control group. They were assessed using self-report measures before and after the intervention on posttraumatic stress-related symptoms, somatic complaints, functional impairment, and anxiety.


RESULTS
At baseline, 43.5% were found to have a likely diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder. A month after the intervention ended, students in the active intervention showed statistically significant reduction on all outcome measures compared with those in the waiting-list control group.


CONCLUSIONS
Extended ERASE-Stress-a universal teacher-delivered skill-oriented program not targeting traumatic memories and involving trained and supervised homeroom teachers-may help students suffering from significant war-related posttraumatic symptoms reduce their level of symptomatology and can serve as an important and effective component of a community mental health policy for communities affected by chronic trauma, such as war and terrorism.
Department of Emergency Medicine, Ben Gurion University of Negev, Beer-Sheba, Israel.
Rony
R
Berger
Marc
M
Gelkopf
Yotam
Y
Heineberg
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D005178:Faculty; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D013334:Students; D014857:Warfare