Children who experience political violence and wars are vulnerable to different sorts of psychological reactions. Unfortunately, cultural constraints and the stigma attached to therapy may prevent these children from receiving needed treatment. This study presents a case of a child with PTSD where a single subject design was used to measure treatment outcomes. The design enabled the social worker to assess, monitor and measure the course of treatment. The advantages of applying the design in clinical intervention in other cultures are highlighted.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Abdullatife, Hassan (1995) ‘Prevalence of Depression among Middle School Kuwaiti Students after the Iraqi Invasion’, Psychological Report77: 643-649.
2.
American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edn). Washington, DC: APA.
3.
Brice, Janet (1982) ‘West Indian Families’, in Monica McGoldrick, John Pearce and Joseph Giordano (eds) Ethnicity and Family Therapy. New York: Guilford Press.
4.
Cheung, M. Kam-fong and Edward R. Canda (1992) ‘Training Southeast Asian Refugees as Social Workers: A Single Subject Evaluation’, Social Development Issues14(2/3): 88-100.
5.
Cheung, Siu-Kau (1996) ‘Reliability and Factor Structure of the Chinese Version of the Depression Self-Rating Scale’, Educational and Psychological Measurement56(1): 142-154.
6.
Chiaramonte, John (1992) ‘And the War Goes On’, Social Work37(5): 469-470.
7.
Coalson, Bob (1995) ‘Nightmare Help: Treatment of Trauma Survivors with PTSD’, Psychotherapy32(3): 381-388.
8.
Duong Tran, Quong (1996) ‘Psychosocial Correlates and Depression in Vietnamese Adolescents’, Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal13(1): 41-50.
9.
El-Garem, H. Hamdi and Ismail S. Ezzat (1996) ‘Preliminary Study of Effect of the Iraqi Invasion on Addictive Behaviour in Kuwait’, Psychological Report79: 143-149.
10.
Furnham, Adrian and Rachel Andrew (1996) ‘A Cross-cultural Study of Attitudes toward Seeking Psychological Help’, Psychological Report97: 289-290.
11.
Guterman, N. and M. Cameron (1997) Children and Youth Exposed to Community Violence: A Multidimensional Assessment Framework. Paper presented at the 43rd Annual Program meeting of the Council on Social Work Education, Chicago, IL.
12.
Ibrahim, Abdel-Sattar and Abdulla Alnafie (1991) ‘Perception and Concern about Sociocultural Change and Psychopathology in Saudi Arabia’, Journal of Social Psychology13(2): 179-186.
13.
Ibrahim, Abdel-Sattar and Radwa Ibrahim (1993) ‘Is Psychotherapy Really Needed in Nonwestern Cultures? The Case of Arab Countries’, Psychological Report72: 881-882.
14.
Jalai, Behnaz (1982) ‘Iranian Families’, in Monica McGoldrick, John Pearce and Joseph Giordano (eds) Ethnicity and Family Therapy. New York: Guilford Press.
15.
Nader, Kathleen, Robert Pynoos, Lynn A. Fairbanks, Manal Al-Ajeel and Abdulrahman Al-Asfour (1993) ‘A Preliminary Study of PTSD and Grief among the Children of Kuwait Following the Gulf Crisis’, British Journal of Clinical Psychology32: 407-416.
16.
Nishith, Pallavi, Diana Hearst, Kim Mueser and Edna Foa (1995) ‘PTSD and Major Depression: Methodological and Treatment Considerations in Single Case Design’, Behavior Therapy26: 319-335.
17.
Nugent, William (1993) ‘A Series of Single Case Design Clinical Evaluations of an Eriksonian Hypnotic Intervention used with Clinical Anxiety’, Journal of Social Service Research17(2/3): 41-69.
18.
Pope, Lisa, Michael Campbell and P. David Kurtz (1992) ‘Hostage Crisis: A School-based Interdisciplinary Approach to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder’, Social Work in Education14(4): 227-233.
19.
Pynoos, Robertet al. (1987) ‘Life Threat and Posttraumatic Stress in School-age Children’, Archives of General Psychiatry44: 1057-1063.
20.
Richman, Naomi (1993) ‘Annotation: Children in Situations of Political Violence’, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines34(8): 1286-1302.
21.
Rosenthal, David, Anne Sadler and Warren Edwards (1987) ‘Families and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder’, in J. Hansen and D. Rosenthal (eds) The Family Therapy Collection. Maryland: Aspen.
22.
Rubin, Allen and Earl Babbie (1997) Research Methods for Social Work. California: Brooks/Cole Publishing.
23.
Sable, Pat (1995) ‘Attachment Theory and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder’, Journal of Analytic Social Work2(4): 89-109.
24.
Shirley, M.et al. (1995) ‘Behavioral Family Therapy for Vietnam Combat Veterans with PTSD’, Journal of Psychotherapy Practice and Research4: 214-223.
25.
Slonim-Nero, Vered and Nancy R. Vosler (1991) ‘The Use of Single-system Design with Systematic Brief Problem-solving Therapy’, Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Human Service72(1): 38-44.
26.
Yule, William (1992) ‘Posttraumatic Stress in Child Survivors of Shipping Disasters: the Sinking of the “Jupiter”’, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics57: 200-205.
