- Шарон Максимов, Дафна (orcid.org/0000-0003-1134-8195) (2025) The psychological features of younger schoolchildren’s traumatic experience transformation using Hibuki-therapy Doctoral thesis, ДЗВО «Університет менеджменту освіти».
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Abstract
The dissertational work presents the theoretical analysis and empirical study on the peculiarities of younger schoolchildren’s traumatic experiences, as well as the developed and substantiated program with the aim to transform traumatic experiences using Hibuki-therapy, which effectiveness and efficiency was confirmed by its implementation in an experimental group and subsequent comparison of the results obtained in the experimental and control groups during the formative research stage. The research object was experiencing by younger schoolchildren of psychic trauma, and the research subject was Hibuki-therapy as a means transforming positively younger schoolchildren’s psychic trauma. The research purpose was: to substantiate theoretically and to examine empirically the peculiarities of younger schoolchildren’s traumatic experiences and their transformation via Hibuki-therapy. As a result of the theoretical analysis, the concept of psychic trauma was developed, the age-specific features of traumatic experiences and the main theoretical and methodological approaches to psychic trauma examination (psychoanalytic; psychodynamic; cognitive-behavioural; cultural-historical; activity; clinical; narrative; genetic; subjective-behavioural; systemic, etc.) were identified. Within this work framework, psychic trauma is defined as trauma (from the ancient Greek τραύμα “wound”) associated with an event or its interpretation by a person that does not belong to the person’s typical experience and, therefore, this event is perceived as irresistible, unusual and causes deep negative emotional, painful experiences, suffering, anxiety, feelings of horror, helplessness, etc. The provisions of the comprehensive (Bulgakova, Savchenkova, 2022; Tytarenko, 2019 and others) and psychoanalytic (Winnicott, 2019; Bowlby, 1969; Jung, 2022; Freud, 1966; Freud, 1977; Horni, 2009 and others) approaches were used to develop a structural-functional model that described constructive transformation of traumatic experiences in younger schoolchildren; it covered four spheres of life, which were the subject of psychological influence: cognitive-reflexive (reduction of traumatic memories on experienced events, increasing of activities, planning for the future, release from negative thoughts, etc.); emotional-affective (stabilization of a psycho-emotional state: reduction (normalization) of anxiety, excitement, tension, broadening the repertoire of positive emotions, emotional inclusion in activities and communications); motivational-behavioural (establishing contacts and interaction with others, development of the ability to accept and provide support in difficult life situations; aggression reducing, free expression of feelings, overcoming self-destructive behaviour) and physical-somatic (restoring physical activity, normalizing of sleep, eating behaviour, etc.). Traumatic experiences are transformed by means of Hibuki-therapy, which central figure is Hibuki-toy (in Hebrew – “hugs”), a kind of “a transitional object” that helps children create a sense of psychological comfort in a stressful situation (Winnicott, 1953; Gaddini, & Gaddini, 1970; Grohol, 2010 and others). For the first time, Hibuki-toy was used by an Israeli psychologist, Dr. Sh. Hen-Gal to work with children having severely disturbed psycho-emotional states because of the Lebanon War in 2006. However, many “technical” and “content” points of Hibuki-therapy have been changed in our work. In particular, the current patented method of Hibuki-therapy is different from the Hibuki method proposed by Dr. Sh. Hen-Gal in the following: the method was elongated from a short-term intervention (1–2 meetings) to a longer one (8–9 sessions with a child and 1 session with his/her parents); the toy itself changed (the updates were made in accordance with children’s needs to improve therapy effect); the therapy goal was shifted from a child’s emotional state stabilization after a trauma to its correction, overcoming the trauma consequences and reducing the trauma impact on a child’s future life. Currently, in addition to Hibuki, the therapy includes other tools and methods (neurography, sculpting, isotherapy, sand Jungian therapy, clay therapy, etc.; these tools are chosen individually for each child, according to the needs determined during psychological examination of the child’s state). Hibuki-toy is presented to a child in the second therapy session or at the stage when he/she is ready to interact with the toy (this is determined by a psychological therapist), and the child takes the toy forever. The idea of Hibuki-therapy is to assign an active role to a child – to take care of the dog-toy that has its own emotions, feelings, fears, experiences, etc. Talking about Hibuki, through projection, children talk about themselves, and by helping Hibuki, children take care of themselves, thus getting used to independence. A questionnaire for studying children's reactions to war-related stress (an author-modified version of the Shay Hen-Gal questionnaire) and the "Memories of a Traumatic Event" questionnaire were developed and adapted. The questionnaires were tested for reliability, internal consistency, and validity on a Ukrainian sample. Using factor analysis within the framework of the war-related stress reaction questionnaire (the author-modified version of the Shai Hen-Gal questionnaire), five scales of the methodology were identified: anxious/obsessive thoughts, aggressive behavior, loneliness, impact of life events, and physical well-being. Within the author's "Memories of a Traumatic Event" questionnaire, factor analysis revealed three scales: re-experiencing the traumatic event, awareness and understanding of emotions and feelings, and behavioral response to the traumatic experience. The performed empirical study revealed the peculiarities of younger schoolchildren’s traumatic experiences: depending on their gender, age, number of children in a family, displacement status since the full-scale invasion, assessment of the current situation, etc. In particular, girls had less stronger emotional and behavioural reactions to a traumatic experience that were characterized by an orientation to the future, a search for ways to overcome difficult life situations, a willingness to act and work for this. Boys showed higher aggression (signs of anger, lower control over aggressive reactions, higher frequency of fights with other children, etc.) and feeling of loneliness, a higher general indicator of the motivational-behavioural sphere concerning traumatic situations. Nine-year-old children, compared to other age groups of younger schoolchildren (six, seven, eight, ten, and eleven years old), experienced traumatic events worse in all spheres, except physical-somatic one. They dreamed less, imagined themselves more negatively in the near future, returned to traumatic experiences more often, had difficulties in identifying their own emotions and feelings, as well as higher anxiety, stronger feelings of loneliness, more problems in mutual understanding with parents. At the same time, they were more active by trying to overcome negative consequences of a traumatic situation in order to process it. Younger schoolchildren who were the only child in their families returned more often to traumatic experiences, compared to families with many children. Children from many-children families experienced milder traumatic experience while being in a zone of explosions and gunshots or saying goodbye to relatives and friends for an indefinite period, compared to younger schoolchildren whose families had two children. The applied cluster analysis revealed three types of younger schoolchildren depending how they experienced war-related traumatic events: adaptive-positive, sensitive and moderately reflective. The adaptive-positive type (30.4 %) was characterized by lesser returning to war-related traumatic experiences, a lower impact of life events on such children, and the complexity of their experiences due to being forced to leave home, say goodbye to relatives, hear sirens, see the wounded, etc. They were future-oriented, dreamy, their dreams were positive, they were ready to talk about traumatic events and receive and provide emotional support, they had lower war-related anxiety and tension, felt less aggressiveness and loneliness, and had fewer physical problems stimulated by stress, such as: poor sleep, enuresis, body pain, etc. The sensitive type (18.1 %) was characterized by frequent and more destructive return to traumatic experiences, a negative orientation to the future, such children more often planed for the nearest future, without a long-term perspective, were less active in their attempts to overcome negative consequences of a traumatic situation. Sensitive-type children were characterized by anxiety, aggressiveness, poor control over their own behavioural reactions. Such children felt lonely, had fewer social contacts with peers and more somatic problems (sleep disturbances, eating disorders, etc.). The moderately-reflective-type children (51.5 %) were characterized by awareness of their experiences, a desire to find resources to overcome difficult situations, a realistic assessment of their situation, without an orientation exclusively on its negative aspects, emotional balance and a balance between sensitivity and adaptation. Basing the performed theoretical analysis and empirical data obtained during the research ascertainment stage, we developed and tested the program transforming constructively younger schoolchildren’s traumatic experiences and using Hibuki therapy. The program consisted of eight to nine sessions (depending on the need). The goal of the formative experiment was to reduce traumatic experiences by working with the cognitive-reflexive, emotional-affective, motivational-behavioural and physical-somatic spheres of a child’s personality. At the same time, parents were attracted during the transformational stage of our formative experiment: they had an psychological training to help them understand their children’s experiences, to show ways to support their children with the help of Hibuki-toy and to describe them main characteristics of work with children using Hibuki-therapy. Such work with parents was important due to the fact that parents received tips and an algorithm of actions (memos) that could help them guide their children, if necessary, at home. After all, children met with a psychologist only once a week, received the toy, took it home and the rest of time did not interact with the specialist, but were with their parents, who also had to be included into the therapeutic process for its better result. In this case, parents became psychologists’ partners; they supported and guided their children outside the psychologist office. The program effectiveness was determined using an objective criterion, namely numerical measurements before and after its implementation in the experimental group. Positive changes in the experimental (impact) group were observed in all spheres where traumatic experiences were influenced. As for the cognitive-reflexive sphere, the frequency, intensity and complexity of experiences, fantasies and dreams related to remembered traumatic experience decreased; fixation on negative aspects of the current situation was relieved; understanding of one’s own resources, optimal actions for constructively overcoming a difficult situation increased, tendency appeared to find ways to overcome traumatic situations and its negative consequences, readiness appeared to both receive and provide emotional support in difficult situations. As for emotional-affective sphere, children’s fear indicators become lower (fears of going to school, sleeping, being alone, saying goodbye to parents, losing home, loud noises, that something terrible would happen to them or their relatives, that something would go wrong; also, children became less concerned about the issue of death), negative feelings of experiencing about the traumatic event became easier; fixation on one's own experiences appeared less often. As for the motivational-behavioural sphere, manifestations of aggressive behaviour decreased (decreased anger, verbal aggression, desire to vent anger on someone and something); loneliness was felt lesser (decreased indicators regarding children’s perceptions that their parents or people around them did not understand that they were completely alone; the desire to be alone, to play alone and feeling abandoned became less strong); obsessive desire to talk about the traumatic event in all types of activity (games) vanished. As for physical-somatic sphere, sleep improved, it become longer, the quality of sleep and falling asleep improved (problems with falling asleep when a child was alone decreased); appetite stabilized and feeling of fatigue reduced. The performed dissertational work does not cover all aspects of traumatic experience transformation by the means of Hibuki-therapy. In the future, in the perspective of a scientific study, it is advisable to investigate the effectiveness of the developed program for different age groups (pre-schoolers, adolescents, high-school graduators); to develop and test programs transforming the traumatic experiences for children depending on their gender, family configuration, etc.; to determine the features and to test different forms of interaction within Hibuki-therapy (group work, mixed approach) and check their effectiveness; to prepare parents, practical psychologists, teachers for the introduction of Hibuki-therapy; to investigate in details the gender characteristics of traumatic experience transformation, factors influencing such experience depending on gender of younger schoolchildren, etc. Studies on personal readiness of clinical psychologists and psychotherapists to use Hibuki-therapy in their practical work are no less important.
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