Supporting business educators and students against COVID-19 trauma using trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy

Abstract

Background:The outbreak of COVID-19 manifests in peoples’ mental health and psychological dispositions and may also result to acute distress, depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on victims. The objective of this study was to support business educators’ and students’ mental health against coronavirus trauma using trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT).Methods:The participants (n = 74 – educators and students) who indicated PTSD symptoms based on the self-reporting questionnaire they filled, were randomly assigned to treatment and waitlist control groups. The TF-CBT manual was used for the intervention. The intervention was a 14-week treatment with 2 weeks follow-up meeting. Using repeated measures of Analysis of Variance, we determined the level of improvement of each participant in the treatment group against Coronavirus trauma at the end of the intervention.Results:The study established that gender has no significant difference in determining the effects of Coronavirus trauma on participants. Through intervention, the PTSDs and depression arising from Coronavirus event were significantly reduced in the treatment group. Again, there was a significant improvement in the participants’ general mental health at the end of the intervention. Hence, we established the implication for research and practice in line with the outcome of the study. The study advocates that TF-CBT should be employed by educational institutions in Nigeria to cushion the traumatic effects of coronavirus and future disasters on both workers and students.Conclusion:We conclude that mental health problems remain a serious challenge among business educators and students in this COVID-19 pandemic era. The study established that low educational qualifications, PTSD symptoms and negative coping strategies are the factors aggravating the general low mental health of the study participants. Finally, we advocate that the educational institutions in Nigeria should adopt TF-CBT interventions to support staff and students’ mental health against adverse effects of COVID-19.

Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Middle School Students After the Covid-19 Outbreak

“…Further, the study also found that age also had no association with the emergence of post-traumatic anxiety symptoms experienced by individuals. Edeh et al (2022) also described no significant difference in the traumatic effects after the COVID-19 pandemic between individuals of a different gender. In a study conducted to find out the growing symptoms of post-traumatic anxiety in adolescents after the COVID-19 pandemic, Zhang et al (2021) also found similar results.…”

“…Accordingly, schools need to pay close attention to students' mental health in order to aid them in avoiding PTSD, since PTSD will hinder their development. As an alternative, schools need to provide facilities for enhancing students' independence (Edeh et al, 2022). The preventive and curative alternatives should also be carried out to prevent PTSD as well as lowering the PTSD symptoms experienced by students.…”

Trajectories and predictors of vicarious traumatization in Chinese college students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study

“…Notably, essential measures should also be taken on medium-level maintaining groups to change into an escalating group. Trauma-focused-cognitive behavior therapy (TF-CBT) was widely evidenced as a recommended psychological intervention for its both short-term and longterm efficacy on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in youth (33,34), which may be helpful to build resilience and improve the individuals' initial traumatized conditions. In addition, for the rapid development of digital health interventions and digital platforms, it is essential to incorporate psychological support for college students through listening and counseling services with the implementation of digital psychological interventions to contain, as far as possible, the evolution and structuring of psychopathological profiles during traumatic events (2).…”

Efficacy of rational emotive behavior therapy for the improvement of knowledge and risk perception of hypertension among university lecturers in South East Nigeria: REBT for university lecturers’ hypertension improvement

“…Most of the lecturers in the Departments of Educational Foundation and Business Education are faced with series of academic stressors due to so many social, environmental, and behaviourial factors from the academic milieu. [ 16 ] Some of the stressors stem from their core academic activities such as development of course materials, planning lessons, and organizing of academic curricula. They also experience stress through the setting of quizzes and examinations and grading them as well as supervision of the students’ projects and theses.…”

“…All these stressors influence both their reasoning, and relationship with people. [ 16 ] There is agreement among the authors that the teaching profession is a very stressful career because of heightened psychosocial stressors at the workplace. [ 17 ] For instance, Oshineye et al [ 17 ] found that lecturers are always engrossed with volumes of work which extract a lot of energies out of them and put pressures on their health.…”