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Abstract
Studies of children exposed to traumatic situations consistently demonstrated a spectrum of posttraumatic symptoms to include trauma specific fears, anxiety, somatic complaints, avoidance, behavioral and school problems and changed attitudes about the self, others, and the future. The study aims to measure the efficacy of the EMDR-IGI in the reduction of trauma symptoms among children victims of armed conflict in the selected places in Mindanao. The true experimental method of research specifically the pretest-posttest with expanded posttest was used as its design. It uses the Children’s Revised Impact of Events Scale (CRIES-13) and Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC) as measures of trauma symptoms. A total of 148 elementary school children in Lanao del Norte, Maguindanao, and North Cotabato were the participants of the study. The pre-test results revealed that symptoms of anxiety, depression, post traumatic stress, and dissociation were all suggestive of difficulty or may represent subclinical symptomatology, while only one – anger – was below the range. The main PTSD symptoms of intrusion, avoidance, and arousal, when summed up, indicates a high probability to obtain a diagnosis of PTSD. The results also revealed that there was a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test mean scores of the experimental group who underwent the treatment protocol as compared to the control group who did not. Post-test and the expanded post-test comparison showed no significant differences. This suggests that the reduction of trauma symptoms in the experimental group remains stable one month after the EMDR-IGI was employed. The study suggests that the employment of EMDR-IGI as a therapeutic modality is effective in reducing symptoms of trauma among children exposed to armed conflict in Mindanao. The degree of mean difference between the pre-test and post-test indicates a large effect size. The findings therefore suggest the use of EMDR-IGI in situations that involve armed conflict or other traumatic situations like natural disasters and other man-made disasters where children are the victims.
Keywords: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, EMDR, Integrative Group Treatment Protocol, Children in Armed Conflict, War, and Trauma
