Evaluation of an Education Program for Elementary School Teachers Regarding Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among Pupils in Mosul City

Background: The ability of teachers to recognize and respond appropriately to the emotional and social needs of their pupils plays a key role in promoting pupils’ mental health. In the absence of teachers’ supportive roles, some susceptible pupils may experience unrecognized sadness, despair, and/or anger. As a result pupils can get low academic performance, and loss of control over their lives. Therefore, teachers must be involved in specific education programs and training sessions about common childhood mental health disorders, especially post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition, ensuring that the majority of teachers have benefited from such programs is an important aspect.

Objectives: The study objective is to construct and evaluate an education program for elementary school teachers about post-traumatic stress disorder among pupils.

Materials and Method: A Quasi-experimental design was carried out through the present study with application of pre and post-tests approach. The study sample consisted of (60) teachers participated voluntarily in the study. Teachers were randomly selected from (60) elementary schools inside Mosul (Mosul is the second largest city in Iraq). The study subjects were divided into two equal groups of (30) teachers, study group which was exposed to the education program, while the control group was not exposed to the education program. Data were analyzed by using SPSS version-25.

Results: The results reveal that there are statistically significant differences in teachers’ knowledge regarding all (PTSD) related knowledge domains in comparison between pre and post tests for study group compared with control group.

Conclusion: The study concludes that there is a considerable acquisition in teachers’ knowledge regarding post-traumatic stress disorder following program implementation. Recommendations: The study recommends to construct and apply such mental health education programs in most Iraqi governorates elementary schools.