Effectiveness of school based psychodrama in improving mental health of Palestinian Adolescents

Background: There are few psychosocial interventions programs to address adolescent's psychosocial needs among Palestinian adolescents area of war and conflict. Aim : The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of school based psychodrama program in improving mental health status of Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip. Method : Participants of the study were 84 school adolescents aged 12-17 (Mean age = 13.7 years) from grades one tenth from three schools selected randomly from schools registration lists provided by the Ministry of Education. From each school, classes were randomly assigned to the prevention. Pre-test and assessment scales (Sociodemographic scale and Gaza Child Mental Health Scale) were applied to children one week before starting the psychodrama sessions on April and May 2008 by 6 psychologists and psychiatric nurses working the field of children victims of trauma and war and at the end of scholastic year on May 2008. Results: According to adolescents report, the results showed that there was statistically significant decrease in total scores of child mental health problems and hyperactivity symptoms after psychodrama program. According to parents, the results showed that there was statistically significant decrease in obsessive and overanxious symptoms after student the intervention program. However, teachers did not report improvement in most of adolescent's mental health problems. Conclusion: Our findings showed that psychodrama program in time of war and conflict was effective and improved adolescents' mental health. However, there were discrepancies between the adolescents, parents, and teachers reports of improvement in mental health problems. Parents and adolescents agreed that the program improved the adolescent's mental health. However, teachers said no effect. This highlighted the need for increasing the number of psychodrama sessions and time between each session. Also, other factors could be studied instead of only studying the mental health such as resilience and social skills.