Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 School Mental Health DOI 10.1007/s12310-017-9228-1 REVIEW PAPER Promoting Resilience Through Trauma‑Focused Practices: A Critical Review of School‑Based Implementation Brittany N. Zakszeski 1  · Nina E. Ventresco 1  · Aliza R. Jafe 1   © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2017 Keywords Trauma-informed service delivery · Trauma- focused practices · Trauma-sensitive schools · Multi-tiered systems of support · School-based implementation Introduction Unfortunately, exposure to trauma is common in childhood (e.g., Finkelhor, Turner, Shattuck, & Hamby, 2015) and marked by potentially devastating efects. Children who have experienced trauma are at increased risk of impair- ments in not only emotional functioning but also behavio- ral, social, and academic functioning (Perfect, Turley, Carl- son, Yohanna, & Saint Gilles, 2016; Porche, Costello, & Rosen-Reynoso, 2016). The range and cascade of negative outcomes associated with children’s experience of chronic trauma represent a signifcant public health concern and bar- rier to school success (Overstreet & Mathews, 2011). To promote the functioning and well-being of individu- als who have experienced trauma and prevent (re)trauma- tization, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) (2014) advocates use of a trauma-informed approach to prevention and intervention. This approach represents a variety of practices that involve (a) realizing the efects of trauma on individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities; (b) recognizing the signs and symptoms of trauma; (c) responding by integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and prac- tices; and (d) actively resisting re-traumatization, and that are characterized by the principles of safety; trustworthiness and transparency; peer support; collaboration and mutual- ity; empowerment, voice, and choice; and consideration of cultural, historical, and gender issues (paraphrased from pp. 9–10). SAMHSA has advocated that a trauma-informed approach, involving trauma-focused (or trauma-specifc) Abstract The current review sought to describe the imple- mentation and evaluation of trauma-focused school practices as represented in the published literature. Through a system- atic literature search, we identifed 39 articles describing trauma-focused practices implemented in school settings with elementary populations and coded data regarding these interventions’ characteristics as well as their imple- mentation and evaluation procedures. Reviewed interven- tions were most often implemented by external clinicians or researchers with select populations in response to traumatic events experienced by a community (e.g., natural disaster, political violence). Additionally, interventions were most frequently evaluated solely using rating scales assessing psychopathological symptoms and without consideration of important dimensions such as treatment integrity, fdel- ity, and acceptability as well as outcome generalization and maintenance. We call for coordinated practice and research agendas focused on embedding trauma-focused practices within integrated multi-tiered systems of supports; designing culturally sensitive practices and training school personnel to serve as intervention agents; and increasing the rigor and broadening the methods, informants, and foci of screening and intervention evaluation procedures in the direction of leveraging multi-method, multi-informant, strengths-based assessment. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12310-017-9228-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Brittany N. Zakszeski brk213@lehigh.edu 1 College of Education, Lehigh University, 111 Research Drive, Iacocca Hall, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA