Identifying what educators need to support trauma-informed practices in the schools: A community needs assessment.

Educators are often on the frontline of supporting the well-being of their students. Thus, it is critical to ask teachers what they need in regard to implementing trauma-informed practices in schools (TIPS). This mixed-methods, community-initiated needs assessment explored educators' well-being and use of trauma-informed resources. A random selection of 450 certificated school staff from two school districts was invited to participate. Educators (n = 178; 39.5% response rate) completed a survey, and four focus groups were conducted (n = 14) to obtain feedback on factors affecting the use of TIPS. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses were used to determine the factors most related to resource use. Teachers reported strong well-being and low levels of secondary traumatic stress, but high levels of burnout. Themes from the focus groups highlight administrator actions that can improve teacher well-being. Teachers rated their most used resources as a list of mental health resources, virtual-guided wellness activities, and opportunities to connect with others, whereas the most helpful were opportunities to connect with others, in-person-guided wellness activities, and training to identify students who may need support. Teacher well-being and school climate achieved traditional significance values for predicting teacher use of resources; however, they did not reach the Bonferroni-adjusted significance value. Results from this needs assessment indicate that teachers wanted resources to adequately respond to their own and their students' mental well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Implementing youth participatory action research at a continuation high school.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the process of implementing a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) project at a continuation high school (CHS) and share the results of a youth-designed research project that explores barriers to high school completion. DATA SOURCES AND STUDY SETTING: YPAR was implemented across three cohorts at a CHS in the central coast of California from 2019 to 2022. Student survey respondents were enrolled CHS students between March and April 2021. STUDY DESIGN: A modified YPAR curriculum integrating research methodology and social justice topics was used to guide student-led research that resulted in a cross-sectional survey. DATA COLLECTION: Field notes maintained by the first author documented the process of implementing YPAR including the curriculum, conversations, and research decisions and procedures. A student-designed survey disseminated to all enrolled students resulted in 76 (66%) participant responses. The survey included 18 close-ended questions and three narrative responses. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: This study details how YPAR methodologies can be translated to a high school credit recovery program. For example, student cohorts were needed to maintain continuity over time. A student-designed survey revealed that 72% of student respondents reported taking care of family members and illuminated high rates of depression symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: This study offers a detailed description of how we implemented YPAR at a credit recovery program and provides student-driven perspectives on educational reform and evaluation. This project addresses the implementation and challenges of using YPAR to engage youth in transformational resistance to rapidly study and improve CHS' policy and practice.

Posttraumatic growth, purpose, and trauma in university survivors of sexual assault.

Objective: This study focused on purpose as a key mechanism of posttraumatic growth for university student survivors of sexual assault. Participants: An online survey was completed by 278 participants of various ethnic, racial and gender backgrounds, recruited through email, social media, department subject pools, and Amazon Mechanical Turk. Methods: Researchers used mixed methods, concurrent triangulation approach in which quantitative and qualitative data were collected simultaneously with closed and open-ended questions. Results: Hierarchical multiple regression demonstrated that age, purpose in life, high magnitude stressors, and trauma history were significantly related to posttraumatic growth. Emergent themes described the impacts of sexual assault, how sexual assault impacts purpose, and ways in which purpose impacted posttraumatic growth. Conclusion: Results confirmed the association of purpose with posttraumatic growth as well as other key impacts of trauma that should be investigated further. Next steps include evaluating therapeutic interventions focused on purpose.

Child Maltreatment Prevention Service Cases are Significantly Reduced During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Investigation Into Unintended Consequences of Quarantine.

Unprecedented financial and emotional stress, paired with measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 (e.g., school closures), place youth at risk for experiencing increased rates of abuse. We analyzed data from New York City's Administration for Children's Services to investigate the frequency of child maltreatment prevention service case openings during this time. Longitudinal counts of case openings were compiled for January through June of the years 2014-2020. An independent samples Kruskal-Wallis H-test suggested that pre-quarantine case openings were significantly larger than case openings during quarantine. To account for the possible influence of other historical events impacting data, a secondary Kruskal-Wallis H-test was conducted comparing only the 4 months of quarantine data available to the 4 months immediately preceding quarantine orders. The second independent samples Kruskal-Wallis H-test again suggested that pre-quarantine case openings were significantly larger than case openings during quarantine. A Poisson regression model further supported these findings, estimating that the odds of opening a new child maltreatment prevention case during quarantine declined by 49.17%. These findings highlight the severity of COVID-19 impacts on child maltreatment services and the gap between demand for services and service accessibility. We conclude with recommendations for local governments, community members, and practitioners.

Associations of School Diversity with Students' Race-based Victimization and School Connectedness: A Combined Influence of Student and Teacher Racial/Ethnic Diversity and Socioeconomic Diversity.

School diversity has been shown to be associated with students' school experiences. However, most studies have focused solely on student racial/ethnic diversity, in spite of the multifaceted nature of diversity. This study assessed how the combined influence of student and teacher racial/ethnic diversity and socioeconomic diversity were related to race-based victimization, school connectedness, and racial/ethnic disparities of these outcomes. The participants were Asian, Black, Latinx, and White students (n = 100,408; 46.2-53.5% female) in Grade 7 to Grade 12 attending 278 public schools in California. The participating schools' diversity contexts were categorized into four latent profiles differentiated by varying levels of student and teacher racial/ethnic diversity and socioeconomic diversity. Race-based victimization was the least prevalent in schools with low student racial/ethnic diversity, low socioeconomic diversity, and moderate teacher racial/ethnic diversity. The magnitude of racial/ethnic disparities in race-based victimization differed across the four latent profiles; racial/ethnic disparities were minimal when there were similar numbers of students in each racial/ethnic group. School diversity's relation with school connectedness was minimal. White students perceived higher school connectedness than other racial/ethnic groups across profiles, but the White-Latinx gap was smaller in profiles with schools having a homogeneous Latinx student population. The findings underline the importance of understanding school diversity's interaction with students' characteristics, particularly racial/ethnic identity, on students' school experiences.

Social support profiles associations with adolescents' psychological and academic functioning.

Social support is empirically linked to improved adolescent psychological and academic functioning. This study explored typologies characterized by family, peer, and school support among students in early (Grade 7; n = 27,399) and late (Grade 11; n = 27,984) adolescence. We assessed how each latent profile related to key aspects of psychological and academic functioning and the moderation of gender in these associations. Three convergent profiles (i.e., High, Moderate, and Low Support) and two divergent profiles (i.e., Minimum Peer Support and Minimum Family Support) were found in both grade levels, with psychological and academic functioning differentiated by the profiles. The Minimum Peer Support and Minimum Family Support profiles showed the lowest functioning in all domains across grade levels. The High Support profile showed the highest psychological health and academic performance. Gender moderation was observed in the associations between social support profiles and psychological functioning and was more prominent among 7th graders than 11th graders. Findings suggest that social support's impact is determined by combinations of various support sources, age, and gender. The social support profiles and their associations with students' characteristics and outcomes may inform practitioners in supporting vulnerable groups and planning interventions.

Decision-Making Model for Addressing Role Conflict for Psychology Trainees When Supporting Family and Community.

As the field of psychology continues to make efforts to diversify the field, training programs must adapt to include the needs of diverse students. Universities in the United States mirror middle-class norms and values, which implies that students are expected to separate from familial roles and focus on their personal growth. This conflicts with core values and intentions of students from collectivist cultures. Although psychology trainees are obligated to adhere to professional ethical standards, a growing number of psychology trainees from collectivistic cultures need support to manage role conflict within potentially ambiguous standards regarding how to care for family and community members. This need is further complicated when training programs consider the lack of equitable access to mental health care resources in communities where their psychology trainees come from. In this paper, we engage in ethical decision making to address two scenarios representing role conflict between training program expectations and collectivist community and familial obligations. Through this exercise we develop and propose a Decision-Making Model for Addressing Role Conflict for Psychology Trainees. This conceptual model details a novel framework to assist psychology trainees when addressing the mental health of family and community while also providing guidance to help graduate training programs proactively equip their students with the skills and ethical framework they need to balance role conflicts such as when family and community members desire and need mental health support.

Transgenerational Trauma and Mental Health Needs among Armenian Genocide Descendants.

The trauma of a genocide can be transmitted to subsequent generations though familial mental health, sociopolitical trauma, and cultural narratives, thereby impacting mental health and well-being. Understanding specific mechanisms that are unique to each ethnic group impacted by genocide illuminates cultural, sociopolitical, and individual factors related to the transmission. For the Armenian community, the unresolved historical loss of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, with the threat of acculturation for such a large diasporic population, a continued denial by the perpetrators, as well as subsequent generations' refugee experiences, may further exasperate the impact of transgenerational trauma from the genocide. This literature review explores the mental health needs of Armenian youth in the current sociopolitical context and provides implications for how schools and communities may use this knowledge to inform supports that center Armenian community healing. Future directions for research are also discussed.

Predictors of Mental Health Outcomes in Grocery Store Workers amid the COVID-19 Pandemic and Implications for Workplace Safety and Moral Injury.

Limited research exists on the mental health (MH) of grocery store workers (GSWs), who have been on the frontlines throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. A disaster MH conceptual model incorporating demographics, disaster exposure and threat (COVID-19 fear and workplace threat perception), perceived stress, and social support (lack of from family and friends) was utilized to predict MH outcomes (anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress symptoms; PTSS) of GSWs. GSWs (n = 842) were recruited through a regional union in California. The participants were diverse (62.1% female) and were 18-69 years of age (M = 41.5, SD = 13.9). They completed an online survey regarding COVID-19 fear, workplace threat perception, perceived stress, lack of social support, and workplace needs/recommendations for support. Three hierarchical linear regression models were run assessing each MH outcome. Thematic analysis coding and an inductive approach were utilized for analyzing open-ended responses of workplace needs/recommendations. Females and younger GSWs (ages 18-29 years old) on average, reported higher MH symptoms than males and older age groups, respectively. COVID-19 fear and perceived stress were significant predictors of anxiety, while COVID-19 fear, workplace threat perception, and perceived stress significantly predicted depression and PTSS, explaining almost half of the variance for each model. Social support and demographics were not predictive of MH outcomes. Almost half of GSWs (40%) requested increased safety protections in the workplace. Feelings of fear of COVID-19, threat in the workplace, and overall perceived stress are predictive of GSWs' MH outcomes. Increasing feelings of safety in the workplace and reducing stress may lessen MH symptoms.

Elementary school teacher well-being and supportive measures amid COVID-19: An exploratory study.

As frontline education providers, teachers have encountered many challenges since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. To better understand teacher well-being during this crisis and inform practices to support them, this study employed an online survey with a mixed-methods approach to assess teacher well-being and the support they need to work effectively. A sample of 151 elementary school teachers in the United States was recruited in summer 2020 to complete an online survey through emails and social media outlets. Participants were asked to provide retrospective reports of their experiences teaching in spring 2020 after schools closed due to COVID-19. The majority of participants reported feeling emotionally exhausted and high levels of task stress and job ambiguity. Consistent with hypotheses, path analysis testing a model informed by the job demand-resources framework indicated that task stress and job ambiguity were robustly related to teacher well-being. Moreover, three job resources (i.e., teaching efficacy, school connectedness, and teaching autonomy) were related to job satisfaction. A moderation finding revealed that teachers who reported high teaching efficacy felt emotionally exhausted when they were unclear of their job duties. Thematic analysis of responses to an open-ended question found that teachers would feel supported if provided resources to develop competence in distance learning, workplace emotional support, and flexibility during COVID-19. The findings identified a critical need to allocate more attention and resources to support teacher psychological health by strengthening emotional support, autonomy, and teaching efficacy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Elevating the Voices of Girls in Custody for Improved Treatment and Systemic Change in the Juvenile Justice System.

The U.S. juvenile justice system does not meet the needs of girls in custody, and often fails to address girls' symptoms of trauma and high rates of sexual exploitation histories. As the system shifts away from punitive detention to a trauma-informed approach with community-based services, community psychologists and other helping professionals can help center the needs and experiences of girls in custody. As part of a multi-year collaboration, our research team created a confidential youth advisory process in one juvenile detention center (JDC). We acted as liaisons between the girls in custody and JDC administrators, reporting girls' feedback to agencies at monthly meetings. Participant confidentiality, safety, and consent were priorities. The girls' feedback, which was conceptualized within a System Responsiveness and hierarchy of needs framework, led JDC probation and mental health staff to improve services (e.g., better laundry system, longer showers, warmer food), climate (e.g., consistent reward system, confidentiality of grievances), and treatment (e.g., increase focus on gender and culture) to reduce the trauma of incarceration among girls in custody. Girls' feedback also catalyzed systemic change that led to a reduction in the JDC population in favor of wraparound community-based services better suited to meet girls' needs. Implications for community psychology values and the juvenile justice system, including the benefits and challenges of this type of collaboration, are discussed.

Cyberbullying victimization and student engagement among adolescents: Does school climate matter?

Although the psychological impacts of cyberbullying victimization (CBV) have been documented, research is inconclusive about the role of contextual factors in the association between CBV and student engagement. Sampling 16,237 adolescents from 43 schools in Delaware, we used multilevel modeling to test how CBV was associated with emotional and cognitive-behavioral engagement at both the student and school levels, with the control for demographic factors and traditional bullying victimization (TBV). We also examined the moderating effects of school climate and grade level on the association between CBV and student engagement. CBV had a small but significant positive association with emotional engagement and a small but significant negative association with cognitive-behavioral engagement. School-level climate intensified the negative association between student-level CBV and cognitive-behavioral engagement and mitigated the positive association between student-level school climate and emotional engagement. The positive association between CBV and emotional engagement was stronger for high school than middle school students, whereas the negative association between CBV and cognitive-behavioral engagement was stronger for middle than high school students. The findings support the promotive role of positive school climate in student engagement promotion. The findings also support the healthy context paradox, which suggests that bullying victims' engagement in schools may be exacerbated in a social context with positive school climate perceived by the group members. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Languishing Students: Linking Complete Mental Health Screening in Schools to Tier II Intervention.

Despite innovations in the screening and early identification of students who may benefit from school mental health services, many schools struggle to link screening to intervention decisions, particularly at the Tier II level. Universal complete mental health screening, which measures strengths along with risk factors, is a strength-based approach that enables identification of students who do not report active mental health risk yet have limited psychosocial strengths. These languishing students are ideal candidates for Tier II interventions. Using a case study to link screening to intervention, this paper describes a contemporary approach to complete mental health screening, identify candidates for Tier II intervention, select appropriate interventions, and monitor student outcomes. Implications and challenges for school psychologists are discussed.

Protecting youth from gang membership: Individual and school-level emotional competence.

The current study examined the association between adolescent emotional competence, operationalized and measured at both the individual and the school levels, and gang membership. The study involved a sample of 12,040 students (51.4% females; mean = 16.9 years) participating in the biennial state department of education coordinated California Healthy Kids Survey, which assesses a range of adolescent health-related behaviors. Hierarchical linear modeling indicated that higher levels of individual emotional competence were associated with a lower likelihood of identifying as a gang member. Moreover, a stronger negative association between emotional competence and identifying as a gang member was found when emotional competence was operationalized at the school level. Implications include the role of schools in promoting emotional regulation, empathy, and behavioral regulation of their entire student body as part of an overall strategy to reduce individual student's attraction to gangs.

Initial evidence for the validity of the California Bullying Victimization Scale (CBVS-R) as a retrospective measure for adults.

Childhood bullying is an important predictor of psychological and health outcomes in adulthood; however, validated retrospective measures of childhood bullying are lacking. This study investigates the psychometric properties of an adult retrospective version of the California Bullying Victimization Scale (CBVS). The CBVS self-report measure was developed for use with children and adolescents to assess the three definitional characteristics of bullying (aggression that is chronic, intentional, and involves an imbalance of power), without using the term "bullying." In the current study, we evaluate patterns of retrospective reports of bullying victimization, and compare results to a common definition-first measure of bullying. Concurrent validity and 4-year stability are addressed. In the fall of 2012, entering first-year students at 4 universities in the United States (N = 1,209; 65.2% female) completed the California Bullying Victimization Scale-Retrospective (CBVS-R) as part of an online survey. In spring of 2016, participants at 2 universities who provided contact information (N = 175) completed a 4-year follow-up survey. Results support the validity of the CBVS-R as a retrospective self-report measure of bullying victimization experienced in childhood. In particular, the percent of respondents classified as being bullied (27.9%) and age- and gender-related patterns of victimization were consistent with known patterns of childhood bullying. In addition, respondents reporting childhood victimization indicated increased psychological distress in adulthood. However, stability of reports across a 4-year follow-up period were lower than expected (κ = .38). Implications for the use of retrospective reports of childhood bullying victimization are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Bullying victimization and student engagement in elementary, middle, and high schools: Moderating role of school climate.

Bullying is the most common form of school violence and is associated with a range of negative outcomes, including traumatic responses. This study used hierarchical linear modeling to examine the multilevel moderating effects of school climate and school level (i.e., elementary, middle, and high schools) on the association between bullying victimization and student engagement. Participants included 25,896 students in 4th to 12th grades from 114 schools. Results indicated that, after controlling for student and school demographic factors, positive school climate was associated with higher behavioral/cognitive and emotional engagement of students across all grades. This highlights the critical and fundamental role of positive school climate in bullying prevention and intervention, among students across all grade levels, including those with frequent bullying victimization experience. Results also showed that negative associations between student-level bullying victimization and engagement were intensified in more positive school climates. This finding suggests that, in comparison with students in schools with less positive school climates, the engagement of bullying victims in schools with a more positive school climate might be more negatively influenced by their victimization experience. Additionally, the relation between student-level bullying victimization and emotional engagement was significantly different across middle and high schools. (PsycINFO Database Record

Dating and Sexual Violence Research in the Schools: Balancing Protection of Confidentiality with Supporting the Welfare of Survivors.

Rigorous research and program evaluation are needed to understand the experience of dating and sexual violence among youth and the impact of prevention and intervention efforts. Our dilemma in doing this work occurred when youth disclosed dating and sexual violence on a research survey. What responsibility do researchers have to protect survivors' confidentiality as a research participant versus taking steps to ensure the student has the opportunity to access help? In our evaluation of a pilot dating violence prevention program, our protocols employed widely used procedures for providing resources to participants upon their completion of the survey and de-identifying survey data. Upon reviewing preliminary survey results, we became concerned that these established procedures were not sufficient to support research participants who were adolescent survivors of dating and sexual violence. We followed a structured ethical decision-making process to examine legal and ethical considerations, consult with colleagues, consider impacts and alternative solutions, and ultimately find a solution. Through this process, we developed procedures that balance participant confidentiality and the desire to support the welfare of survivors, which other researchers may want to employ when conducting youth sexual and dating violence research in school and community settings.

Psychosocial functioning of bullied youth who adopt versus deny the bully-victim label.

This study addressed a need for research on the association between adopting or denying the label of bully victim and students' psychosocial functioning. Participants were 1,063 students in Grades 5, 7, and 9 in a school district in the northeastern United States. Students were grouped based on their pattern of responses to (a) the California Bully Victimization Scale (Felix et al., 2011), which does not use the term "bully," but includes behavioral items assessing frequency of peer victimization and whether or not that victimization involved any perceived power disadvantage, and (b) the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire (Solberg & Olweus, 2003; Solberg, Olweus, & Endresen, 2007), which queries self-identification as a bully victim. We compared groups using a series of planned comparisons with ANOVA on self-reported emotional distress and withdrawal, behavioral reactivity and conduct problems, and prosocial behavior and peer competence, as measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997). Results revealed complexities regarding the experience of bullying. The perception of a power difference and having been bullied both related to psychosocial functioning in an interactive way, suggesting that both are important to query. Moreover, students who labeled themselves as victims of bullying reported poorer psychosocial functioning than those who had the experience of being bullied but did not adopt that label.

Associations between past bullying experiences and psychosocial and academic functioning among college students.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined whether childhood bullying victimization was associated with psychosocial and academic functioning at college. PARTICIPANTS: The sample consisted of 413 first-year students from a large northeastern university. METHODS: Students completed an online survey in February 2012 that included items assessing past bullying involvement, current psychosocial and academic functioning, and victimization experiences since arriving at college. RESULTS: Regression analyses indicated that reports of past bullying and other peer victimization were associated with lower mental health functioning and perceptions of physical and mental health, but were not associated with perceptions of social life at college, overall college experience, or academic performance. CONCLUSIONS: Childhood bullying victimization is associated with poorer mental and physical health among first-year college students. Colleges should consider assessing histories of bullying victimization, along with other past victimization exposures, in their service provision to students.

Identifying bully victims: definitional versus behavioral approaches.

Schools frequently assess bullying and the Olweus Bully/Victimization Questionnaire (BVQ; Olweus, 1996) is the most widely adopted tool for this purpose. The BVQ is a self-report survey that uses a definitional measurement method--describing "bullying" as involving repeated, intentional aggression in a relationship where there is an imbalance of power and then asking respondents to indicate how frequently they experienced this type of victimization. Few studies have examined BVQ validity and whether this definitional method truly identifies the repetition and power differential that distinguish bullying from other forms of peer victimization. This study examined the concurrent validity of the BVQ definitional question among 435 students reporting peer victimization. BVQ definitional responses were compared with responses to a behavioral measure that did not use the term "bullying" but, instead, included items that asked about its defining characteristics (repetition, intentionality, power imbalance). Concordance between the two approaches was moderate, with an area under the receiver operating curve of .72. BVQ responses were more strongly associated with students indicating repeated victimization and multiple forms of victimization, than with power imbalance in their relationship with the bully. Findings indicate that the BVQ is a valid measure of repeated victimization and a broad range of victimization experiences but may not detect the more subtle and complex power imbalances that distinguish bullying from other forms of peer victimization.