Effectiveness of Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on Young Females with Depressive Symptoms

Abstract

The present study aimed to explore the effectiveness of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on young females with depressive symptoms, in an individual setting. It was hypothesized that there will be a significant difference in the level of depressive symptoms in participants of experimental group, before and after receiving the Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and that participants subjected to Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy will have an improvement in their symptoms of depression as compared to the control group. The study was experimental in nature, consisting of an experimental/intervention group, who received Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and a waitlist control group. A total of 12 female participants, between ages of 12 to 14, belonging to grade 7 to 9, were selected through purposive sampling from an orphanage from Karachi city, who were randomly divided into two groups, 6 in each group. First permission and consent on participant’s behalf, was sought from the board members of the orphanage. After which females fluent in Urdu and have an understanding of English language as well were screened out through Child Abuse Scale (Malik & Shah, 2007) and scoring a T-score of 15 and above (elevated depressive symptoms) on Depression Self-Rating Scale For Children (DSRSC) (Birleson, 1981) were selected for the study. A total of 14 individual session were held with the experimental group, with a frequency of two sessions per week. All participants were screened before and after the intervention, using the same measure to check the difference in depression levels of both groups. Structure of therapy sessions was based on the guidelines provided in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) model (Your Very Own TF CBT Workbook; Cohen, Mannarino, Berliner, & Deblinger, 2000). Results were statistically analyzed through Independent Samples t-test and Paired Samples t-test. Results showed a statistically significant difference between pre and post test scores of experimental group (/ (5) = -6.163, p < 0.05), indicating towards a significant reduction in depressive symptoms of participants after receiving Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, hence supporting first hypothesis, also results showed a statistically significant difference between post-test scores of the experimental and control group (/(10) = - 3.122, p < 0.05), indicating that depressive symptoms were significantly much less within the experimental group (M=l 1) as compared to the control group (M=21.67) in the post-test, hence supporting the second hypothesis as well. Thus, it is concluded that present study supported the efficacy of a manualized variation of‘Trauma Focused!ICognitive Behavioral Therapy’ for reducing symptoms of depression within young Pakistani females with depressive symptoms. For future researches, it is suggested to explore the effect on a larger sample, within group or individual setting and with cultural adaption of workbook. Additionally, follow-up sessions are also recommended.