أثر برنامج إرشاد جمعي في خفض أعراض الحزن المطوّل والانسحاب الاجتماعي عند أطفال اللاجئين السوريين في الأردن
This study sought to explore impact of group counseling in reducing symptoms of prolonged grief and social withdrawal among sample of female children of Syrian refugees living in Mafraq-Jordan. The purposive sample consisted of 40 participants who have lost one of their parents and/or one or more close family members during the war, with ages ranged between 12-14 years. Participants were students in two public schools and randomly assigned to experimental n=20 and control n=20 groups and were matched in pre-tests based on self reported prolonged grief scale, and teacher report for social withdrawal in girls. This study used a pre-post equivalent groups randomized true experiment design. To investigate the impact of group counseling program (independent variable) on prolonged grief and social withdrawal (dependent variables), a tri- weekly 12 sessions group program based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and psycho-education was developed and held over a period of five weeks. The five-week CBT group had individual topics for each session: getting started, psychoeducation: Identifying, naming and recognizing effects of grief feelings and behaviors, understanding principal of need of others; anger associated with grief and linking social withdrawal with anger; cumulative effects of losing major object; life changes associated with losing and bereavement; existing support system; important concepts around grief; remembering and sharing personal stories of losing loving one, guided imagery exercise; identifying friendship qualities; positive friendship skills; communication skills and nonverbal body language and group joining skills; and finally integration, termination, and wrapping up. Results of pretest to posttest differences for the experimental and control groups on the study scales using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) revealed that the treatment group compared to control group, was significantly α=0.05 more likely to have higher levels of improvements on prolonged grief and its three subscales, and social withdrawal scale. Moreover, results of paired sample t-test, of posttest to follow-up differences for the experimental group on the study two scales, indicated that while the treatment group in follow-up tests improved positively on prolonged grief and its three subscales, and social withdrawal scale, but the differences were not significant only in the later scale. These findings suggest that CBT group counseling may be effective in helping refugee bereaved female children who have serious emotional difficulties with prolonged grief and social withdrawal such as participants in this study. This suggests the possibility of integration this type of programs within services provided by counselors and mental health providers working in Jordanian schools and refugees' social care institutions, especially schools and institutions that provide services for female children who were in the war-torn country. Also, future researchers may conduct similar studies aimed to help bereaved male refugee children and other age groups such as older adolescents and women who lost have lost their parents and some relative in war. Additionally, there is an urgent need to designing group counseling programs that put into consideration emotional difficulties and coping with feelings skills among children living temporary in Jordanian cities, with internalizing disorders. (Author’s abstract)