Improving Knowledge and Attitudes About Child Trauma Among Parents and Staff in Head Start Programs

Area of Science:

• Child Development
• Trauma-Informed Care
• Public Health Interventions

Background:

• Early childhood is a critical period for intervention to mitigate trauma's effects on development and health.
• Existing interventions often lack scalability and low-literacy approaches for parents and caregivers.
• Trauma-informed care is crucial for improving outcomes in young children.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a low-literacy, train-the-trainer intervention for improving child trauma knowledge and attitudes.
• To assess the impact of the training on early childhood education (ECE) staff and parents.
• To determine the scalability and dissemination potential of the intervention.

Main Methods:

• A 2-day online train-the-trainer session was conducted for representatives from Early Head Start (EHS) and Head Start (HS) agencies.
• Trained staff delivered child trauma and resilience training to ECE providers and optionally to parents.
• Surveys assessed knowledge and attitudes at baseline and 3 months post-training, with data analyzed using paired t-tests and chi2 analyses.

Main Results:

• 1,567 staff and 443 parents completed baseline and follow-up surveys.
• Over 55% of parents reported their child experienced adverse childhood experiences.
• Both staff and parents showed significant improvements in identifying child trauma symptoms.
• Staff knowledge of resilience and toxic stress improved, while parents reported more positive attitudes toward trauma-informed parenting.

Conclusions:

• This study introduces the first low-literacy, train-the-trainer program on childhood trauma for EHS/HS providers and parents.
• The intervention demonstrates a promising, scalable methodology for broad dissemination.
• The approach has the potential to train over one million ECE providers and reach numerous families to improve recognition and response to child trauma.