Developing and Examining the Effectiveness of a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy-Based Psychoeducation Practice for Reducing Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms in Adolescents: A Mixed-Methods Study With a Turkish Sample

Mustafa Kerim Şimşek,İsmail Seçer

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.805035

Abstract

This study developed a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-based psychoeducation practice aimed at reducing obsessive-compulsive symptom levels in adolescents in Turkey and tested its effectiveness with a mixed-methods study. After the study was constructed as a pretest-posttest control group experimental application consisting of qualitative stages. The experimental application of the study was carried out with high school students in Turkey. In the sampling process, the schools, where the study will be carried out, were determined with the cluster sampling method. The experimental and control groups were formed with 30 students with high obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms from these schools, and the developed CBT-based psychoeducation practice was applied to the experimental group for 12 weeks. Quantitative data were collected through the “Child Version of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory,” and normality analysis, t-test for dependent samples, and Single Factor Analysis of Covariance were used. Qualitative data of the study were collected through document review, session evaluation forms, and semi-structured interview protocol; content and descriptive analysis techniques were used in the analysis. It was concluded that the developed CBT-based psychoeducation application was an effective approach in reducing OCD symptoms in the Turkish adolescent sample, except for the neutralizing dimension. It was also determined that the findings obtained from the analysis during the application and the interviews after the application are parallel with the findings obtained by quantitative methods, and the qualitative and quantitative findings adequately explained the quantitative documents findings.

Highlights

IntroductionEducation and training processes can be shown as important life period thresholds in which acquisitions, such as adapting to social life, achieving academic progress and success, being beneficial to himself and his environment, acquiring a profession, and making free and independent decisions, are acquired for each individual forming the society (Caspi et al, 2005; Shaffer, 2008)
While these adjustment problems and mood changes caused by adolescence sometimes show themselves with behavioral problems, such as social withdrawal or anger in daily life, they can sometimes show themselves with symptoms of mental illness
This study developed and tested the effectiveness of a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-based psychoeducation practice aimed at reducing Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms and preventing the progression of symptoms to a disorder in a Turkish adolescent sample

Summary

Introduction

Education and training processes can be shown as important life period thresholds in which acquisitions, such as adapting to social life, achieving academic progress and success, being beneficial to himself and his environment, acquiring a profession, and making free and independent decisions, are acquired for each individual forming the society (Caspi et al, 2005; Shaffer, 2008). Some adjustment problems caused by intense physical and emotional changes experienced in adolescence may cause disagreements in the relations of adolescents with their family and environment, trigger some psychological problems, decrease their academic achievement, and cause significant deterioration in social functioning (Derman, 2008). While these adjustment problems and mood changes caused by adolescence sometimes show themselves with behavioral problems, such as social withdrawal or anger in daily life, they can sometimes show themselves with symptoms of mental illness. OCD and its symptoms occur as a result of adjustment problems in adolescence and are considered as an important risk factor in triggering other adjustment problems such as depression and anxiety (Hofer et al, 2018; Jones et al, 2018), peer bullying, truancy, and irritability (Sulkowski et al, 2018; Guzick et al, 2021; Veale and Willson, 2021)

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