Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Current Psychology, cilt.45, sa.5, 2026 (SSCI, Scopus)
Earthquakes and other natural disasters can cause severe and long-lasting trauma symptoms in children, particularly in young children, due to their developmental stage and position within their family systems. Parents, who are often traumatized themselves, play a crucial role in coping with the trauma. The evidence-based parent-management program Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), a well-established intervention for children ages 2–7 years, has recently been adapted to suit different needs. However, an adaptation for trauma by natural disaster has been lacking. The objective of this study was to design a PCIT adaptation for children and their parents who have developed post-traumatic stress due to natural disasters (PCIT-TND), e.g., earthquakes, and to evaluate the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of this adaptation in a pilot study. A new module called Trauma-Focused Interaction (TFI) has been added between Child-Directed Interaction (CDI) and Parent-Directed Interaction (PDI). The module provides psychoeducation on natural disasters and equips parents with practical skills to enhance their child’s and their own stress and emotion regulation. Seven parent-child dyads with traumatized preschoolers participated in this study. Child trauma symptoms and disruptive behaviors as well as parenting stress and parental emotion regulation difficulties were measured before and after treatment. To determine whether treatment effects as assessed with outcome measures were significant or due to random error, reliable change indices (RCIs) were calculated for all outcome measures, which were in the clinical range at pre-treatment assessment. Three families completed the entire PCIT-TND intervention (CDI, TFI, and PDI), one family concluded treatment after the TFI phase, and three families had only CDI. RCI calculations indicated that PCIT-TND is more effective in reducing child traumatic stress symptoms and ensuring their sustainability than only CDI or CDI + TFI. Beyond that, PCIT-TND also demonstrated stronger outcomes in reducing parental stress and parent difficulties in emotion regulation, compared to only CDI or CDI + TFI. The findings of this pilot study suggest that PCIT-TND holds promise as a treatment for preschoolers and their parents experiencing post-traumatic stress following earthquakes. However, further research is necessary to ascertain the effectiveness of PCIT-TND in various traumatic contexts (e.g., after hurricanes and floods) and in more extensive study populations.