Group psychotherapy for adolescent survivors of homicide victims: a pilot study

To conduct an exploratory study designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a time-limited psychotherapy group model to decrease traumatic symptoms among adolescent survivors of homicide victims.

Forty-five inner-city adolescents between the ages of 11 and 19 years participated in community-based, time-limited therapy groups that were specifically designed for youths who had a loved one die because of violence. The therapy groups were based on a 10-week treatment model for adolescent survivors of homicide victims with the goals of providing grief education, facilitating thoughts and feelings about grief, and reducing traumatic symptoms.

On completion of group therapy, the adolescent participants reported an overall significant decrease in traumatic symptoms on an index of posttraumatic stress, especially in the areas of reexperiencing and avoidance symptoms. The mean difference between pre- and posttest was a 10.03 decrease in the sum of the Child PTSD Reaction Index scores (sig = .001).

The results of this pilot study indicate that group therapy may be helpful in reducing PTSD symptoms among inner-city, African-American adolescent survivors of homicide victims. Although validity is limited by the lack of a comparison group, the authors suggest that such a brief trauma/grief psychotherapy group may be applicable for suburban and rural adolescent survivors of homicide victims as well. .