Abstract

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: The identification of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder and its treatment is critically important in contemporary society. This preliminary research aimed to investigate the effect that rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT) had on trauma-specific beliefs.

METHOD: This study used a randomized controlled trial design. The study participants were 182 undergraduate students. A self-report questionnaire which measures trauma-specific irrational beliefs was used for data collection. A trauma-focused REBT manual guided the group intervention. Within x Between-subjects and paired t-test statistic were used for data analysis.

RESULTS: The results show that REBT brought about a significant reduction in trauma-specific irrational beliefs among the students in the treatment group compared to their counterparts in the waitlist control group. Finally, the results indicate that the positive gains were significantly maintained by the treatment group at four months follow-up.

CONCLUSION: The current study suggests that an REBT program can be helpful in altering trauma-specific irrational beliefs. The authors employed this model of psychological intervention in an African society in which trauma is significant. The authors demonstrated a model for evaluation and a model of intervention that appears to be of a significant and enduring impact as reported in this study.

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