WHAT IS TrauMA?

trauma: key ideas and definitions

Trauma is any disturbing experience that results in significant fear, helplessness, dissociation, confusion, or other disruptive feelings intense enough to have a long-lasting negative effect on a person’s attitudes, behavior, and other aspects of functioning. Traumatic events include those caused by human behavior (e.g., rape, war, industrial accidents) as well as by nature (e.g., earthquakes) and often challenge an individual’s view of the world as a just, safe, and predictable place (American Psychological Association, 2020).

A significant number of children are exposed to traumatic life events and experience high rates of stress and adversity from a wide variety of sources. In fact, more than two thirds of children reported at least one traumatic event by age 16 (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA], 2020). These may include physical, emotional, and sexual abuse; refugee or war experiences; neglect; exposure to community violence; bullying; natural disasters; poverty; homelessness; immigration; parental issues such as domestic violence, incarceration, death, mental illness, involvement in substance abuse, and military deployments; and exposure to racial injustices (National Association of School Psychologists, 2015).

Trauma is common in childhood, with strong associations between adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and the likelihood of negative future outcomes (Chafouleas et al., 2019). More specifically, the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Study linked childhood experiences of abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction with future adult health and mental wellbeing (Felitti et al., 1998). Indications of the long-term negative consequences associated with these adverse childhood experiences have been well established in the research for many years. However, much of the knowledge of ACES relies on data predominantly collected from white, middle-/ upper-middle class participants and focuses on experiences within the home. As a result, understandings of ACEs have recently been broadened to include community-related factors, such as discrimination, peer victimization, community violence, neighborhood safety, and exposure to trauma experiences outside of the home (Cronholm et al., 2015).

More recent research on childhood trauma has highlighted how the range and cascade of negative outcomes associated with children's experience of trauma represent a significant public health concern and barrier to school success (e.g., Overstreet & Matthews, 2011). Trauma may lead a child to adopt socially unacceptable behaviors in school, home and/or community settings to help cope with the adverse effects. These coping strategies or responses to developmental trauma may be categorized as risky, problematic, truant or anti-social. Researchers have documented the correlations between trauma and a wide variety of risk-taking behaviors and physical, mental and social health problems.

These negative outcomes are likely even more severe for children who have experienced complex trauma. Complex trauma describes both children's exposure to multiple traumatic events--often of an invasive, interpersonal nature--and the wide-ranging, long-term effects of this exposure (The National Child Traumatic Stress Network, 2020). These events are severe and pervasive, such as abuse or profound neglect. They usually occur early in life and can disrupt many aspects of the child’s development and the formation of a sense of self. Since these events often occur with a caregiver, they interfere with the child’s ability to form a secure attachment. Many aspects of a child’s healthy physical and mental development rely on this primary source of safety and stability. Overall, complex trauma can impair a child's development in regulating emotions and controlling externalizing behaviors (The National Child Traumatic Stress Network, 2020).

QUICK FACTS

Such experiences may undermine a student's ability to learn, form relationships, and manage their feelings, and behavior and place them at risk for trauma and a range of negative academic, social, and emotional outcomes (Rossen & Hull, 2013).

the role of schools

Despite the serious consequences of childhood trauma and associated mental health concerns, children are still capable of growth. Schools represent a safe and secure place where the effects of trauma can be mitigated (Ridgard et al., 2015). The importance of school-based mental health services has led to calls for expansion of services that rely on partnerships between schools, families, and community agencies to provide evidence-based and data-driven prevention and intervention programs in schools (Weist & Evans, 2005). Additionally, this has led education leaders to adopt a trauma-responsive approach. Given the widespread scope and prevalence of childhood adversity and trauma, implementing trauma-responsive school approaches has the greatest potential to positively impact all students, regardless of trauma history.

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