Youth engagement in research, which involves meaningfully collaborating with youth as full partners in the research process, has contributed to improved research collaborations, enhanced youth ...participation, and increased motivation for researchers to address scientific questions relevant to youth. Engaging youth as partners in the research process is especially needed in the field of child maltreatment due to the high prevalence of maltreatment, its poor association with health outcomes, and the disempowerment that can occur following exposure to child maltreatment. Although evidence-based approaches for youth engagement in research have been established and applied in other areas such as mental health services, youth engagement in child maltreatment research has been limited. This is particularly disadvantageous to youth exposed to maltreatment as their voices remain absent from research priorities, which contributes to a discrepancy between the research topics that are relevant to youth and those that are pursued by the research community. Using a narrative review approach, we provide an overview of the potential for youth engagement within the field of child maltreatment research, identify barriers to youth engagement, provide trauma-informed strategies for engaging youth in the context of research, and review existing trauma-informed models for youth engagement. This discussion paper suggests that youth engagement in research can contribute to improvements in the design and delivery of mental health care services for youth exposed to traumatic experiences and should be prioritized in future research endeavors. Moreover, it is essential for youth who have historically experienced systemic violence to be engaged and have a voice in research that has the potential to impact policy and practice.
Growing evidence establishing the prevalence and educational consequences of childhood trauma has led to a national focus on equipping schools to support the specific needs of students who have ...experienced trauma. Despite clear evidence of disproportionate trauma exposure among students of color, most models of trauma‐informed schools do not explicitly address the intersection of race and trauma within their system‐level efforts to help staff realize the prevalence and impact of trauma, recognize the signs of trauma exposure, or respond in ways to avoid retraumatization. This manuscript will review existing efforts to integrate a social justice focus within our ongoing work as part of the Safe Schools NOLA project. We present our conceptual framework and describe how principles relevant to social justice are intentionally integrated into strategies that support the adoption and implementation of trauma‐informed approaches in schools. We also discuss limitations in our current approach and offer suggestions to support the development of trauma‐informed schools that can advance a social justice agenda.
HIGHLIGHTS
Recognizes the role of discriminatory and oppressive historical and societal factors in creating safe and equitable school environments.
Provides a conceptual framework for integrating social justice and trauma‐informed approaches in schools.
Identifies existing and developing practical resources that may be used to advance a social justice agenda within trauma‐informed schools frameworks.
The last 30 years has seen an exponential increase in Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiries. One feature of these has been to place adult survivor voices at the center of Inquiry work, meaning ...that child abuse victims and survivors are engaging with Inquiries, sharing their experiences, with this participation often presented as empowering and healing. This initiative challenges long held beliefs that child sexual abuse survivors are unreliable witnesses, which has led to epistemic injustice and a hermeneutical lacunae in survivor testimony. However to date there has been limited research on what survivors say about their experiences of participation. The Truth Project was one area of work of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales. It invited survivors of Child Sexual Abuse to share their experiences including the impacts of abuse and their recommendations for change. The Truth Project concluded in 2021 and heard from more than 6,000 victims of child sexual abuse. The evaluation of the Trauma Informed Approach designed to support survivors through their engagement with the project was a mixed methods, two phase methodology. A total of 66 survey responses were received. Follow-up interviews were conducted with seven survey respondents. The Trauma Informed Approach was found to be predominantly helpful in attending to victim needs and minimizing harm. However, a small number of participants reported harmful effects post-session. The positive impacts reported about taking part in the Truth Project as a one-off engagement challenges beliefs that survivors of child sexual abuse cannot safely talk about their experiences. It also provides evidence of the central role survivors should have in designing services for trauma victims. This study contributes to the epistemic justice literature which emphasizes the central role of relational ethics in the politics of knowing, and the importance of developing a testimonial sensibility when listening to marginalized groups.
This article reviews concepts and principles of trauma-informed care and trauma-informed practice for those with eating disorders (EDs). EDs are not universally recognized to be associated with ...traumatic events, despite substantial research evidence indicating that individuals with EDs report very high rates of childhood maltreatment, other lifetime traumatic events, as well as adverse consequences from trauma. Using national representative samples, higher prevalence rates of PTSD and other trauma-related comorbidities have been reported in those with EDs, particularly those with bulimic symptoms (binge eating and/or purging). Evidence suggests that those prone to develop EDs appear to be especially sensitive to the effects of stress/adversity and have high rates of premorbid anxiety disorders, personality traits, and neuropsychological features that predispose them to PTSD and its symptoms. This article also reviews some of the important principles for treating individuals with EDs comorbid for PTSD and other trauma-related disorders, including the necessity of moving beyond sequential treatment to the development of integrated treatment protocols. Integration of existing evidence-based treatments, including family therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, cognitive processing therapy, prolonged exposure, and eye movement desensitization reprocessing are recommended. Recent research suggests that ED clinicians view integrated treatment for individuals with ED and PTSD as a top priority, yet they have several concerns about administering such a treatment. As trauma-informed care is embraced by all clinicians and treatment programs that assess and treat eating and related disorders, better outcomes are anticipated.
This phenomenological study explores the experiences of Chinese international undergraduate students in the United States as they work through the complications of COVID-19 that are potentially ...intertwined with Sinophobia. By drawing on insights from critical race theory, especially the lens of racial trauma and trauma-informed care, the current study interprets four primary themes: (a) Paradox: Confusions about Racism in Academic Life; (b) Racially-Traumatic Incidences and Risk Factors in Social and Cultural Life; (c) Exodus: Burnout, Homesick, and the Dilemma; and (d) Determined Traumatic Symptoms: Insomnia, Nightmare, and Negative Memories. Noticeably, social justice issues such as isolation, exclusion, threats, and discrimination were present during the 2020 academic year. Therefore, the implications are explored through sociopsychological perspectives.
Discussions of trauma-informed practices tend to focus on student behaviors and strategies for managing those behaviors, rather than the circumstances students are experiencing. Critical educators ...have expressed concern that a focus on trauma-informed practices lead teachers to view students from marginalized backgrounds with a deficit lens, assuming that they all have experienced trauma. Travis Wright suggests reframing trauma as messiness, which conveys that children’s lives are complex, that they are placed in difficult situations, and that the challenges are ongoing. Describing children’s lives as messy, instead of traumatic, enables educators to take a more expansive view of children’s experiences and potential trauma responses. Emotionally responsive teaching responds to the messiness of students’ lives by promoting healing relationships among students, teachers, and families that foster resilience and restoration.
Abstract
Schools provide spaces for academic knowledge while also addressing children’s social and emotional developmental needs. Because of the holistic development occurring within the education ...system, it is important to have an awareness of students’ experiences and challenges both inside and outside of the classroom. Students with refugee backgrounds represent diverse cultures, languages, and experiences but often share some common challenges and traumas. While trauma can impact students’ ability to learn and develop, classroom expectations, procedures, and rhythms can be adjusted to be trauma informed. Trauma-informed educational practices allow for a universal precautionary model for teachers and school staff to neutralize the environment for possible retraumatization, contributing to the creation of better educational experiences for students with refugee backgrounds as well as the rest of the student body. The aim of this article is to provide primary and secondary school staff—including teachers, administrators, and social workers—with practical information about trauma-informed educational practices to help them address the specific and unique needs of students with refugee backgrounds. Authors include examples of how school social workers, teachers, staff, and administrators can think about trauma-informed practices in the context of education and students with refugee backgrounds.
Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is recognized as a public health concern owing to its chronic nature, association with suicide risk, and its growing prevalence rates across the globe. Including ...individuals living with NSSI in research is crucial as it offers opportunities to give primacy to participant voices and insights, further guiding therapeutic interventions. Research has established an association between history of traumatic events and adverse childhood experiences with subsequent risk of NSSI. When planning a qualitative research study with individuals with potential trauma history, researchers need to be aware of and sensitive to potential re-traumatization and distressing emotions that participants may experience during interviews, as well as complex trauma reactions that may affect individuals after study participation. The article emphasizes that researchers be cognizant of the multifaceted nature of trauma and how it can impact individuals and communities and be sensitive in their approach to interviewing vulnerable groups such as individuals with experiences of NSSI. The authors propose adopting a trauma-informed approach to ethically plan and conduct qualitative interviews exploring NSSI experiences. Trauma-informed recommendations for preparing and carrying out specific steps during different stages of NSSI interviews are detailed.
Evidence-based health interventions are frequently translated into real-world settings where practical needs drive changes to intervention protocols. Due to logistical and resource constraints, these ...naturally arising adaptations are rarely assessed for comparative effectiveness using a randomized trial. Nevertheless, when observational data are available, it is still possible to identify beneficial adaptations using statistical methods that adjust for differences among intervention groups. As implementation continues and more data are collected and assessed, we also require analysis methods that ensure low statistical error rates as multiple comparisons are made over time. This paper describes how to create a statistical analysis plan for evaluating adaptations to an intervention during ongoing implementation. This can be done by combining methods commonly used in platform clinical trials with methods used for real-world data. We also demonstrate how to use simulations based on previous data to decide the frequency with which to conduct statistical analyses. The illustration uses data from large-scale implementation of a school-based resilience and skill-building preventive intervention to which several adaptations were made. The proposed statistical analysis plan for evaluating the school-based intervention has potential to improve population-level outcomes as implementation scales up further and additional adaptations are anticipated.
