Developing and assessing the effectiveness of a psychological first aid training program for parents

The ability of parents to intervene effectively and appropriately in response to traumatic events experienced by their children significantly impacts the children's long-term psychological health. Psychological first aid plays a critical role in reducing post-traumatic stress and supporting emotional recovery. In this context, it is believed that psychological first aid training programs for parents, by enhancing their capacity to support their children, will positively influence children's post-traumatic recovery processes. This quasi-experimental thesis study was conducted to design a brief psychological first aid training program for parents and to evaluate its effectiveness. The study group consisted of parents of children aged 48-72 months who attended an independent kindergarten affiliated with the Ministry of National Education in Kuşadası district, Aydın province, during the 2023-2024 academic year. The research employed the "Psychological First Aid Self-Efficacy Scale," the "Trauma Coping Perception Scale," the "General Self-Efficacy Scale," and the "Personal Information Form." A total of 60 parents participated in the study, and data were compared between the experimental and control groups. In data analysis, descriptive statistical analyses were performed, alongside three separate mixed ANOVA tests for repeated measures and supplementary analyses to assess group differences. SPSS 22 software was used for data analysis. The results indicated that parents who participated in the training program showed an increase in their psychological first aid self-efficacy, trauma coping perception, and general self-efficacy scores. The findings of this study are expected to contribute to the widespread implementation of psychological first aid training programs for parents and to their application as an effective intervention tool for promoting children's healthy development.