TRAUMA-FOCUSED COUNSELLING, SOCIAL EFFECTIVENESS TRAINING AND IMPAIRED PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONING OF EARLY ADOLESCENTS IN INTERNALLY DISPLACED CAMPS IN NORTH-CENTRAL NIGERIA

Abstract

Psychological functioning of early adolescents is critical to healthy growth and development, however when this is impaireddue to posttraumatic stress, daily tasks become difficult.Previous studies have focused largely on physiological needs (food, health and shelter) of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), neglecting their psychological needs. This study, therefore, was designed to determine the effects of Trauma-Focused Counselling (T-FC) and Social Effectiveness Skills Training (SEST) on impaired psychological functioning of early adolescents in IDP Camps in North-Central Nigeria. The study also examined the moderating effects of locus of control and social support. The study was anchored on Social Cognitive theory by Bandura, while the pretest-posttest control group quasi experimental design with 3x2x3 factorial matrix was adopted. Three IDP camps were randomly selected in North-Central, Nigeria (New Kushingoro, Pegi and Garki Area 1 camp), while the cluster sampling technique was used to select 20 participants from each of the IDP camps. The IDP Camps were randomly assigned to T-FC (20), SEST (20) and control (20) groups. The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (α = 0.81) was used to screen the participants for impaired psychological functioning. Adolescents’ Psychological Functioning (α = 0.90), Rotter’s Locus of Control (α = 0.89) and Multidimensional of Perceived Social Support (α = 0.87) scales were used for data collection.Treatment lasted ten weeks. Data were analysed using Analysis of covariance and Scheffe post-hoc test at 0.05 level of significance.

There was a significant main effect of treatment on impaired psychological functioning of early adolescents in IDP camps (F (2, 57) = 239.29;partial ῆ2 = 0.89). Participants in T-FC had the highest post-mean score (65.05), followed by SEST (51.30) and control (27.45)groups.There was a significant main effect of social support on impaired psychological functioning of displaced early adolescents(F(1, 57)= 6.98;partial η2 = 0.10). The participants with high social support (50.72) benefited more from the treatment than their low social support (41.78) counterparts. There was no significant main effect of locus of control on impaired psychological functioning of the participants. There were no significant interaction effects of treatment and locus of control as well as treatment and social support on impaired psychological functioning of the participants. There wasa significant interaction effects of locus of controland social supporton the participants (F(2, 57)= 5.52;partial η2 = 0.08) in favour of high social support participants with internal locus of control. The three-way interaction effect of treatment, locus of control and social support on impaired psychological functioning of the participantswas not significant.

Trauma-focused counselling and social effectiveness skills training were effective in the management of impaired psychological functioning of adolescents in internally displaced camps in North-Central Nigeria. Developmental, clinical and counselling psychologists should adopt these therapies as treatment modalities for improving psychological functioning of Internally Displaced People.