Abstract
Purpose: Little is known about school professionals’ definitions of trauma outside of the context of trauma-informed school trainings. Methods: The present study used thematic analysis to explore school professionals’ open-ended definitions of childhood trauma (N = 1271). Follow-up chi-square tests of independence were used to investigate differences in professionals’ definitions based on their professional role and education. Results: Five themes were identified: effects of trauma, events of trauma, solutions to trauma, emotional responses, and no knowledge. Effects of trauma and events of trauma contained ten and five subthemes, respectively. School professionals who identified long-term effects of trauma on students most commonly listed general negative effects (e.g., “An experience or event that can negatively impact that child”) instead of effects on specific domains such as behavior or emotions (e.g., “An experience that negatively impacted a child emotionally”). School professionals who identified an event of trauma most commonly provided examples of trauma (e.g., child maltreatment) or a general definition of trauma. School professionals’ roles and education were somewhat related to their definitions of childhood trauma. Findings suggest that childcare providers and professionals without a bachelor’s degree have gaps in their knowledge of child trauma. Conclusions: These results suggest school professionals have some foundational knowledge about trauma, but it is not universal. To best serve school professionals working with this vulnerable population of students, researchers and practitioners should design future trauma-informed professional development opportunities around school professionals’ prior knowledge and understanding of trauma as well as their potential misunderstandings of trauma.
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Acknowledgments
We also wish to acknowledge the qualitative coding efforts of Molly Milani and Justin Goldberg, who helped make this project possible.
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Funding for this project was provided by the Bainum Family Foundation.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design, material preparation, and data collection. Funding acquisition and project administration were performed by Christy Tirrell-Corbin and Carlomagno Panlilio. Analyses were performed by Amanda Ferrara. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Amanda Ferrara and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Ferrara, A.M., Panlilio, C.C. & Tirrell-Corbin, C. Exploring School Professionals’ Definitions of Childhood Trauma. Journ Child Adol Trauma 16, 783–793 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-023-00550-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-023-00550-0