In August of 2018, we submitted research to the Journal of Pediatric Psychology about the benefits of Angel Faces Retreats. Here is a summary of our objective, methods, results and conclusions.
Objective: To assess the impact of an innovative psychosocial intervention for young women recovering from burns or other disfiguring conditions.
Methods: Attendees completed validated questionnaires before and after the weeklong retreat and again three months later. Questionnaires assessed various domains of psychosocial functioning and appearance concerns. Participants who completed both a pre and a one week post-test for at least one of the questionnaires at their first retreat were included in the analyses. T-test for pairs were used to assess the differences between scores at baseline and one week and between baseline and three-month follow up.
Results: 78 (87.6%) of 89 unique participants completed at least one questionnaire on the first and last day of the retreat, and 14 (15.7%) also completed a third questionnaire three months later. There were statistically significant improvements on five measures, suggesting an increase in self-esteem, hopefulness, quality of life, and satisfaction with appearance and a decrease in depression. In the subsample that completed questionnaires three months after the retreat, the patterns suggested sustained improvements.
Conclusions: For young women with disfiguring conditions, there were significant improvements on five psychosocial measures after attending the retreat. These findings suggest the effectiveness of the Angel Faces retreat in improving the quality of life of young women adjusting to disfiguring conditions.
