Less Fearful, More Active: What Did CBI Achieve?

A cooperative drawing class at 8th Boru Primary School, Kocaeli.
Photograph by Yakut Temiroğlu-Sundur © UNICEF Turkey 2000

Post-intervention symptom measures were collected simultaneously one week after the completion of the last CBI session. Comparisons of the students’ symptoms before and after the CBI showed that the programme was most effective in reducing anxiety, depression and the physical side-effects of trauma in the more distressed children. Distressing symptom clusters such as these, common to the survivors of traumatic events, are damaging to the everyday functioning of the child and therefore their reduction can only be viewed in a positive light. The programme seemed to have had little effect on less distressed adolescents who may have had little room to improve within the brief span of the study. Neither did the programme have any obvious effect on the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) although it should be emphasised that it is extremely unlikely counsellors could address PTSD in a classroom setting in any way that would be helpful or that the children would accept. That said, results of the study suggest that CBI would be best targeted at adolescents with higher levels of PTSD. When used as a first step towards post-trauma normalisation, the intervention can reduce the impact of PTSD on other aspects of their emotional functioning.

I had been very happy before the earthquake. Then I lost my brother, my sister, my aunt, my uncle, my grandmother and cousins when it happened. I felt that my life was over.

Then you came and showed me how to love life all over again.

GA (girl) 6a Cumhuriyet Primary School, Spring 2000

Results were apparent by the second or third session, and by the end of the sixth week, children were showing signs of improvement and an eagerness to take part in more sessions. Counsellors reported reduced externalisation of fear, less aggressive behaviour increased attention and a general improvement in performance at school. There were significant reductions in disturbances of sleep, digestive problems and elimination, improved peer and adult relationships, self care and play behaviour, a sense of safety, a sense of self-control and a sense of the future. Preliminary results from the evaluation study indicated significant changes in those children who received psycho-social intervention during the previous school year.

In many cases, children said they had learned to associate certain problems with the disaster and to view their reactions to them as normal. They were beginning to develop friendships, to listen to each other, to share their problems and to look for solutions to those problems together. One child observed that:

Following the rules has taught me to be less fearful, more active.

The opening circle at Bahçelievler Primary School, Yalova.
Photograph by Yakut Temiroğlu-Sundur © UNICEF Turkey 2000

For the school counsellors, themselves, there were many unforeseen but nonetheless welcome benefits:

I learned a great deal. After working with adolescents for eight years, I thought I knew them. But many of the children rejected us and I soon discovered that there was plenty that I had to learn about them still. By the time we completed the CBI, however, we were getting so much positive feedback from these children that I can’t help but feel we’d done a good job.

Between April 2000 and June 2001, twenty-eight thousand children took part in the CBI and five thousand parents were reached through follow-up meetings.

The fully illustrated text of Less Fearful, More Active is also available for download in print-ready pdf format. [PDF 1.25MB]

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