Youth Resilience and Adjustment: Trauma, Identity, Stress, and Skills-Based Interventions
4 - (OP20) Trauma-sensitive Support and Training in Inclusive Schools - A Study with Refugee Students
Friday, June 26, 2026
4:56 PM - 5:13 PM PDT
Location: Yerba Buena Salon 12, B3 Level
Keywords: Trauma, Emotion Regulation, Disaster Response Recommended Readings: Demir, Z., Böge, K., Fan, Y., Hartling, C., Harb, M. R., Hahn, E., Seybold, J., & Bajbouj, M. (2020). The role of emotion regulation as a mediator between early life stress and posttraumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety in Syrian refugees. Translational Psychiatry, 10(1), 371. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-020-01062-3, Hazer, L., & Gredebäck, G. (2023). The effects of war, displacement, and trauma on child development. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10(1), 909. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02438-8, Höltermann, A., Scharf, F., Romer, G., & Möller-Kallista, B. (2022). Psychological distress in unaccompanied and accompanied child and adolescent refugees in Germany. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, 50(5), 369-381. https://doi.org/10.1024/1422-4917/a000855, ,
The impact of traumatizing experiences on the development of psychosocial stress disorders is significantly moderated by emotion regulation and social support in the peer group. In this project, a trauma-sensitive support and training concept for students at risk of traumatization was developed based on a needs analysis of students, teachers and parents. The focus was on students with a refugee background, who are particularly vulnerable for traumatization. The concept consists of a manualized cognitive-behavioral small group training, conducted by trained teachers. Our research questions: 1) Does the implementation of the concept change a) trauma-related classroom behavior, b) psychological problems and c) emotion regulation in students? 2) Does the culturally diverse classroom climate improve? N = 540 students (nEG = 233, 70 with a refugee background; nKG = 307, 90 with a refugee background) in grades 5 - 8 from inclusive secondary schools in Germany took part in a quasi-experimental waiting-control group study with pre-, post- and follow-up measurement. The concept was implemented in weekly sessions over a period of twelve weeks. At the measurement points, trauma-related teaching behaviors were recorded by means of a teacher rating, psychosocial problems (SDQ), emotion regulation (FEEL-KJ) and the culturally diverse classroom climate via student surveys. Teacher characteristics and the implementation quality of the concept were also surveyed. In the presentation, the changes in the target constructs over the three measurement points are presented in comparison between EG and KG as well as in relation to the teacher characteristics and the quality of implementation.
Learning Objectives:
To know about a large German research project focusing on traumasensitive PBIS methods for students with refugee background in inclusive schools.
