The Impact of Trauma-Informed Educational Support Groups on Increasing Self-Efficacy: Standing Together for Health in Malawi
Carol A. Minton-Ryan, PhD; Ana Gamez, PhD & Julie Goodman-Bowling, PhD
Abstract
Malawi’s HIV prevalence is one of the highest in the world. This disparity is especially prominent among 15 – 29 years of age. If they are not HIV positive themselves, they have lost many friends and relatives to this disease. My hypothesis was: Attendance at the four trauma-informed educational support groups will have a positive effect on the new general self-efficacy mean post-test scores on adolescents who experience chronic trauma. While trauma is more broadly defined as an experience that is emotionally painful or shocking and often results in a decrease in self-efficacy. The current study incorporated a mixed method approach to evaluate the impact of the Johns Hopkins trauma-informed educational program, Standing Together for Health, on self-efficacy. The results and findings presented in this study suggest that both the quantitative and qualitative results support the positive impact the trauma-informed educational support groups had in the self-reported improved mean self-efficacy scores. The statistical results were significant at the p .001 level thus rejecting the null hypothesis.