The Effectiveness of Spiritual therapy and religious coping strategies instruction on reducing the symptoms of Secondary PTSD among veterans' Children with PTSD

Evidence shows that spiritual coping methods are effective in helping people maintain and increase mental health in crisis situations. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of spiritual therapy and teaching coping strategies on reducing the symptoms of secondary trauma in the children of PTSD veterans.

The research method was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design with control and a one-month follow-up group. The statistical population included control students (children of PTSD veterans) in the Islamic Azad University of Iran in 1397. First, based on the inclusion criteria, students with high scores in secondary trauma were identified and randomly assigned to three experimental groups and one control group (10 people in each group). Three experimental groups underwent spiritual therapy and religious coping strategies training, respectively, the third group did not receive any intervention as a control group. Participants completed the Secondary Stress Questionnaire (STS). After collecting and extracting the data, participants' scores were analyzed with the data by repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance.

The results showed that the effects of spirituality, therapy, and training of religious coping strategies in modulating and reducing the symptoms of secondary trauma were significant (P <0.05).

The results of the present study emphasize the need for spiritual therapy interventions, counseling, teaching religious coping strategies to families of PTSD veterans (in order to take more effective measures), organizing group spiritual therapy sessions, and coping strategies training programs for better and more effective relationships.