Trappan
Summary
Introduction
The Trappan method is aimed at children and young people aged 4–18 who have witnessed domestic violence in their family. Trappan helps the child to put their experiences of violence into words and process them. The aim of the method is to use discussions to reduce trauma symptoms related to experiences of domestic violence.
Research question
Does the Trappan method have evidence-based effectiveness in the Finnish context on reducing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and other psychiatric problems among children and young people who have witnessed domestic violence?
Data and methods
This study used the Population, Concept and Context (PCC) strategy to search for literature, which is a typical strategy in exploratory literature reviews. The search targeted the following question: What research has been done on the Trappan method? The keywords used were: P = Children and young people C = Trappan, stairs. Context was omitted to avoid an excessive restriction of the results of the search. The primary area of interest in the search was effectiveness studies carried out on the method, although studies carried out by using different frameworks were also included. A systematic search was carried out for the following six databases: MEDLINE, APA PsycInfo, CINAHL, ERIC, Web of Science and Scopus. In addition, a search for publications in Finnish was performed via the Finna.fi service.
Results
Trappan is well-documented, and the method’s mechanisms of action are based on a generally accepted theoretical basis. The implementation support included in the method is good from the perspective of training and implementation support, but the monitoring of the method could still be developed further. No peer-reviewed studies were found on the method in the literature search, but there is upcoming scoping research on the method.
Method assessment
Trappan receives a method assessment of 1/5, which means that the programme is well-documented and has a theoretical basis. There is no evidence of the effectiveness of the method, i.e. there is no data on the effectiveness of the method at this time.