Narrative therapy for depression and anxiety among children with imprisoned parents: A randomised pilot efficacy trial

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the efficacy of narrative group therapy in reducing depression and anxiety among children with imprisoned parents. The study design was a randomised clinical trial with an experimental group, and waiting list group as the control group. Eighty-five children with imprisoned parents were selected by convenience sampling method. They were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group received the narrative group therapy while the control group did not. The research measurement instrument comprised the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) and the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS). Analysis of univariate covariance (ANCOVA) and independent t-test was employed to test the study hypothesis. The findings showed that depression and anxiety reduced among children with imprisoned parents with a high effect size (anxiety = 0.90 and depression = 3.05). Thus, the principle and techniques of narrative therapy and the benefits of group therapy reduced depression and anxiety among children with imprisoned parents. Therefore, this study showed that this intervention can be useful for children with imprisoned parents.