Prevention of Mental Health Problems in People Exposed to a Recent Highly Stressful Event.

This project evaluates the effectiveness of three intervention models for the prevention of mental health problems in people who have suffered a recent highly stressful event, through an experimental design, with a control group and random assignment of participants in each group . The preventive interventions that will be evaluated will be based on three different psychotherapeutic models: brief systemic therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness. It is expected to observe a significant reduction in post-traumatic and depressive symptoms, and an increase in subjective well-being and post-traumatic growth, compared to the control group. In addition, the moderating effect of psychological processes such as cognitive rumination, emotional self-regulation and coping strategies used in the relationship between the type of intervention and its results will be evaluated. If the hypotheses are confirmed, this study will allow the prevention of emotional distress associated with a highly stressful event, as well as the promotion of positive results, through empirically supported, low-cost strategies and with results that are capable of demonstrating their effectiveness.