Equine-Assisted psychotherapy - children
The article aims at presenting a mental health intervention modality for children who are or have experienced intra-family violence using an equine-assisted psychotherapy. The article links violence between parents to the adverse effects they have on their children. Children are at greater risks of a wider range of behavioral problems and mental health disorders such as anger, depression, low self-esteem and anxiety if exposed to violence. The article identifies EAP as an alternative approach to alleviating the issues using horses as a therapeutic tool. The horses were used to serve as obstacles for children to overcome the burden of addressing communication, self-esteem, responsibility, boundary-setting and problem-solving skills. In an extended focus, the pilot study was purposed to test the efficacy of EAP in a cross-section group of children who were referred to a psychotherapist for a number of behavioral problems and mental health issues in a period of 18 months that is between June 2003 and January 2005. A mean number of 19 EAP sessions were received by a total of 63 children.
The EAP sessions comprises of activities involving caring and interacting with horses to enable building up of the required skills. In order to quantify the growth of children, pre- and post treatment scores on the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale were determined fro the children. The results indicated that the mean pretreatment score was about 54 and post treatment mean score was about 62. All 63 children showed improvement in GAF scores, which shows a presence of statistical correlation between the improvement percentage in the GAF scores and the number of treatment sessions. When Univariate analysis was conducted, the results showed a great improvement in the GAF scores occurring to the younger children under study. The study population in the article was divided into a number of subgroups so that a focus could be given effectively within the different age sets and the level of abuse that the children were exposed to. From this, children who showed history of physical abuse and neglect had a greater improvement percentage in GAF scores than those with no history after the modality treatment. The study thus demonstrated a response to EAP, especially in younger children, but the long term effects of the type of intervention still remains to be determined.
[...] When Univariate analysis was conducted, the results showed a great improvement in the GAF scores occurring to the younger children under study. The study population in the article was divided into a number of subgroups so that a focus could be given effectively within the different age sets and the level of abuse that the children were exposed to. From this, children who showed history of physical abuse and neglect had a greater improvement percentage in GAF scores than those with no history after the modality treatment. [...]
[...] The study took place in an 18-month period and it tested the efficacy of EAP modality in helping to alleviate the issues that children face due to violence among their parents. This program, EAP, Was implemented using the guidelines provided by the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA), a non-profit organization founded to address the need for resources, education as well as professionalism in the field of EAP to encourage the insight of clients through horse example. Longitudinal study refers to an investigation where the outcome of participants and possible exposure are collected at multiple follow-up times. [...]
[...] For instance, in the testing effects and setting of EAP session for children, there was no control variable as all the children selected were exposed to violence. The selected population was treated through a prescribed intervention tailored for each individual, and their needs were assessed by their psychotherapist. All the interventions were predicted upon the reflective behavior of children that work with horses. Assignment of the interventions could have been advantageous since the allowed for a specific target of the children issues (Trotter, 2012). Additionally, proven methods of targeting the ailment may be integrated so that the effectiveness of the treatment can be increased. [...]
[...] Perspective longitudinal studies are often open to the possibility that the effects seen are because of the confounding factors giving a low internal validity. For instance, considering the null and alternative hypotheses of the study, the null hypothesis stated that EAP will not improve the GAF score of the children; while the alternative hypothesis is the EAP will improve the behavior and GAF score of the children (Trotter, 2012). For the study, the explanatory variable was children's exposure to violence or abuse. [...]
[...] The article links violence between parents to the adverse effects they have on their children. Children are at greater risks of a wider range of behavioral problems and mental health disorders such as anger, depression, low self-esteem and anxiety if exposed to violence. The article identifies EAP as an alternative approach to alleviating the issues using horses as a therapeutic tool. The horses were used to serve as obstacles for children to overcome the burden of addressing communication, self-esteem, responsibility, boundary-setting and problem-solving skills. [...]
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