BACKGROUND: In the past five years alone, Lebanon has endured a series of unprecedented collective traumas culminating in direct military assaults. PURPOSE: This study examines the feasibility and acceptability of a cognitive-behavioral skills-building intervention called Creating Opportunities for Personal Empowerment (COPE) in alleviating trauma and mental distress in a sample of 14 to 17 year-old adolescents. METHODS: A mixed-method one-group pretest-posttest design was used. A total of 76 adolescent participants were enrolled for 7 sessions. Symptoms of trauma (PCL-S), depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), quality of life (QOL Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory), body image dissatisfaction (BSQ-8c), and emotional eating (EES), were measured before and after COPE. FINDINGS: Post-intervention results showed large, significant reductions in trauma, depression, and anxiety symptoms, alongside improvements in quality of life and body image satisfaction. Adolescents also rated COPE as engaging and beneficial. LINKING EVIDENCE TO ACTION: Our findings suggest that internal factors, such as emotional distress and daily functioning, play a strong role in shaping trauma outcomes in war-exposed adolescents. COPE was associated with improvements in mental health and functioning of adolescents living in crisis-affected contexts.
Khoury-Malhame et al. (Mon,) studied this question.