The effect of cognitive therapy on structural social capital: Results from a randomized controlled trial among sexual violence survivors in the democratic republic of the Congo

B.J. Hall, P.A. Bolton, J. Annan, D. Kaysen, K. Robinette, T. Cetinoglu, K. Wachter and J.K. Bass

American Journal of Public Health, 2014, vol. 104, issue 9, 1680-1686

Abstract: Objectives. We evaluated changes in social capital following group-based cognitive processing therapy (CPT) for female survivors of sexual violence. Methods. We compared CPT with individual support in a cluster-randomized trial in villages in South Kivu province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Local psychosocial assistants delivered the interventions from April through July 2011. We evaluated differences between CPT and individual support conditions for structural social capital (i.e., time spent with nonkin social network, group membership and participation, and the size of financial and instrumental support networks) and emotional support seeking. We analyzed intervention effects with longitudinal random effects models. Results. We obtained small to medium effect size differences for 2 study outcomes. Women in the CPT villages increased group membership and participation at 6-month follow-up and emotional support seeking after the intervention compared with women in the individual support villages. Conclusions. Results support the efficacy of group CPT to increase dimensions of social capital among survivors of sexual violence in a low-income conflict-affected context.

Keywords: adult; article; cognitive therapy; controlled clinical trial; controlled study; Democratic Republic Congo; female; human; mental stress; methodology; middle aged; poverty; psychological aspect; randomized controlled trial; sexual crime; social support; socioeconomics; statistics; survivor, Adult; Cognitive Therapy; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Female; Humans; Middle Aged; Poverty; Sex Offenses; Social Support; Socioeconomic Factors; Stress, Psychological; Survivors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2014.301981_4

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.301981

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