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Support for Students Exposed to Trauma: A Pilot Study

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Abstract

With high rates of trauma exposure among students, the need for intervention programs is clear. Delivery of such programs in the school setting eliminates key barriers to access, but there are few programs that demonstrate efficacy in this setting. Programs to date have been designed for delivery by clinicians, who are a scarce resource in many schools. This study describes preliminary data from a pilot study of a new program, Support for Students Exposed to Trauma (SSET), adapted from the Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) program. Because of its “pilot” nature, all results from the study should be viewed as preliminary. Results show that the program can be implemented successfully by teachers and school counselors, with good satisfaction among students and parents. Pilot data show small reductions in symptoms among the students in the SSET program, suggesting that this program shows promise that warrants a full evaluation of effectiveness.

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Notes

  1. Missing values for student assessments ranged from none to nine missing values missing on total scores included in this paper, depending on the time point. Parent and teacher assessments had more substantial missing values, with 20–27 values missing for teacher reports and 16–24 values missing for parent reports on the different time points.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of a large team: Steven Evans, Phyllis Ellickson, Sheryl Kataoka (consultation), Dan McCaffrey (design and randomization), Fernando Cadavid (student screening and student and teacher surveys), Barbara Colwell, Roberta Bernstein, Pia Escudero (LAUSD school logistics), Diana Polo Huizar (parent interviews), Stefanie Stern (focus groups and adherence ratings), Anita Chandra (qualitative interviews), Taria Francois (data entry and manuscript preparation), Suzanne Blake, Daryl Narimatsu (school principals), and Patricia Fuentes-Gamboa, Yvette Landeros, Lajuana Worship, Maria Sanchez (SSET implementers). This project was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Mental Health (R01MH072591).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. RAND Corporation, 1200 South Hayes Street, Arlington, VA, 22202, USA

    Lisa H. Jaycox, Priya Sharma & Molly Scott

  2. UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Audra K. Langley

  3. RAND Corporation, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Bradley D. Stein & Matthias Schonlau

  4. Los Angeles Unified School District, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Marleen Wong

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  1. Lisa H. Jaycox
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Correspondence to Lisa H. Jaycox.

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Jaycox, L.H., Langley, A.K., Stein, B.D. et al. Support for Students Exposed to Trauma: A Pilot Study. School Mental Health 1, 49–60 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-009-9007-8

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