Free writing: Evaluation of a preventive program with elementary school children

Eight-session free-writing workshops focusing on developing elementary schoolchildren's use of different describing words, reference to self, expression and clarification of feelings, and expression of stress responses were introduced to 324 fifth-grade children living on the northern border of Israel where the probability of war-related crisis is particularly high. The purpose of the study was to evaluate (a) the effectiveness of the workshop and (b) the applicability of free writing in an actual stressful event. Results indicated that the workshop group exhibited higher mean scores than the nonintervention control group on all behavior measures, both after the workshop and following a stressful event (shelling of the town). The theoretical background for free-writing conceptualization is given and the implications of the results are discussed in light of large-scale preventive intervention.     

From supportive-listening to a solution-focused intervention for counsellors dealing with political trauma

This article focuses on a brief 'helping the helper' intervention with school counsellors during a nation-wide political trauma, the recent Intifada in Israel. An emergency field intervention programme for Israeli school counsellors was developed that was aimed at addressing their personal as well as professional (and role-related) concerns to reduce or prevent burnout and enhance empowerment. The action research method was used to adapt the programme to the participants' needs. The resulting brief intervention programme was designed to shift processing of the perceived situation from affective processes to more structured and controlled cognitive processes. The burnout prevention programme included a short (process) debriefing to promote the affective to cognitive coping processes shift, presenting coping strategies to enhance cognitive adaptation to threatening events, and using a solution-focused guidance intervention. The rationale and the results supporting the face validity of the intervention are presented.     

Children in Stress: Anticipatory Guidance in the Framework of the Educational System

This article suggests the application of anticipatory intervention principles in schools to meet the psychological needs of teachers, pupils, and parents as well as of the school as an organizational system for coping with extreme stress caused by either natural or man-made disaster. A theoretical-typological model of preventive intervention is suggested adapting the tripartite intervention model of Caplan (1967) and the five-stage behavior model presented by Glass (1959) to reactions to disaster. Also described are direct anticipation measures developed to prepare school population to confront the unexpected disaster so as to minimize the psychological damage. These include the use of simulation and simulation games by mental health professionals who initiate and evaluate the anticipatory intervention methods, and the use of specially designed classroom study units (“Emergency Kit”) by teachers and teachers' substitutes. The role of the school counselor in initiating and helping to implement such programs, as well as responding therapeutically to immediate emotional problems in disaster, is argued for.     

Mass inoculation in a community: The effect of primary prevention of stress reactions

This study assessed the effectiveness of a brief, situation-specific, group-administered preparatory intervention in a nonclient school population undergoing mass inoculation against rubella. Fifty-one girls were randomly assigned to practice, no-practice, or control groups. Both the practice and the no-practice groups received information that described the inoculation procedure and how to cope with it by using cognitive-behavioral coping skills. The practice group was encouraged to perform coping techniques of this type, whereas the no-practice group was told only that the intervention would help them during the inoculation. Subjects in both practice and no-practice groups reported less anxiety and exhibited more cooperative behavior during inoculation than subjects in the control group, and those who were guided and prompted to actively practice derived greater benefit.     

Family environment, discrepancies between perceived actual and desirable environment, and children's test and trait anxiety

This study examined relationships between family environment, discrepancies between the 'actual' and the 'desirable' environment, and children's test and trait anxiety. Three dimensions of family environment were studied: communication, encouragement of personal growth, and system maintenance. Discrepancies were defined as the difference between each family member's conceptions of the environment as is ('actual') and how they would most like it to be ('desirable'). The sample consisted of 456 respondents - 152 sixth graders (80 boys and 72 girls) and their parents - who completed the Family Environment Scale (FES), the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI), and the Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (TAIC). The main findings were that children's levels of anxiety were negatively correlated with the three dimensions of family environment and positively correlated with discrepancy between 'actual' and 'desirable' environment. The importance of school counsellors addressing family issues when treating test-anxious children is discussed.