At the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 broke out in Wuhan, raging across the country quickly afterwards. As a sudden public health emergency, this epidemic caused some stress reactions (including emotional, cognitive, and behavioral reactions) in children. These stress responses, in moderation, may be beneficial as a response to the challenge. However, excessive, and inappropriate stress responses may damage children's mental health, immune function, and daily function. School-based CBT intervention is effective in alleviating children and adolescent anxiety. However, the effect last only shortly. Therefore, adding a new intervention component is necessary. Guided Narrative Technique (GNT) is an intervention focusing on narrative coherence and emotional expression. It has writing and drawing versions. The writing version was developed from Expressive Writing and has a significant effect on the improvement of various negative emotions and negative cognitions of traumatized individuals. In this study, a randomized controlled experiment will be implemented. All participants will take a CBT course first. Then, they will be asked to write or draw about the epidemic or other life events using GNT. The study will explore the impact of CBT course combined with GNT on negative emotions and cognition of children after such a public crisis.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
220
School-based CBT intervention: a 3-day, 40-minute per day cognitive behavioral intervention. The intervention will take place in a school classroom in a format similar to offline classroom lectures and classroom interactions. The intervention will lead by one undergraduate student from the School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and one first-year doctoral student with training in clinical psychology. The content of the intervention was based on the theory of cognitive behavioral therapy for children, with a complete self-developed intervention manual, and three interventions targeting emotional awareness and management, thought recognition, and problem coping, respectively.
Guided Narrative Technique (GNT) Writing : GNT writing is an intervention through writing. It will be conducted once a day for 20-30 minutes for three days. Subjects will be asked to complete Guided Narrative Writing at a set time each day for three consecutive days, under the guidance and supervision of a school teacher, following guidelines.
Guided Narrative Technique (GNT) Drawing: GNT drawing is an intervention through drawing. It will be conducted once a day for 20-30 minutes for three days. Subjects will be asked to complete Guided Narrative Drawing at a set time each day for three consecutive days, under the guidance and supervision of a school teacher, following guidelines.
Peking University
Beijing, China
Anxiety and depression
Child anxiety and depression symptoms measured by RCADS-25.
Time frame: From enrollment to the 6-month follow-up
PTSD for children
The Child PTSD Symptom Scale for DSM-5 (CPSS-5) for adolescents and children (scores from 0 to 4, and total scores vary from 0 to 80). A higher score represents worse PTSD symptoms.
Time frame: From enrollment to the 6-month follow-up
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