the effectiveness of mindfulness-based therapy in improving resilience and reducing the clinical symptoms of adolescents with post-traumatic stress disorder due to sexual harassment: a single-subject study

Sexual abuse is a trauma caused by injury, which seriously threatens the health of adolescents and makes them need professional help. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based therapy in improving resilience and reducing the clinical symptoms of adolescents with post-traumatic stress disorder caused by sexual harassment. The research design was a single subject with a follow-up period. The statistical population of the study included all 12 to 18-year-old girls with post-traumatic stress disorder due to sexual harassment in Izeh city who referred to the social emergency center in 2020. Two of them were selected through purposive sampling. Three baseline sessions were performed for each participant. Evaluations were done using the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Scale (Foa et al., 2018) and the Resilience Questionnaire (Connor and Davidson, 2003) at baseline, intervention sessions, and one month after treatment (follow-up). The intervention was performed individually based on mindfulness in 8 sessions. Data analysis was done using visual analysis of graph, recovery percentage and reliable percentage index. The results showed that both subjects showed a decreasing and improving trend in the scale of post-traumatic stress disorder syndrome and an increasing and improving trend in the Conner and Davidson Resilience Scale scores. Subjects preserved these results for up to one month after treatment. Based on the findings of the research, it is recommended that therapists in the field of children and adolescents use mindfulness therapies to achieve more effectiveness in increasing resilience and improving stress symptoms.