trauma-Informed PRACTICES in SCHOOLS: DISTRICT LEVEL CHANGE EFFORTS and IMPLEMENTATION OUTCOMES

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Implementation Science
• School Mental Health

Background:

• Trauma-informed practices are increasingly adopted in schools to support student well-being.
• Validating implementation outcome measures is crucial for assessing the effectiveness of these practices.
• Understanding how organizational capacity influences the adoption of trauma-informed practices is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the construct validity of Weiner et al. (2017) implementation outcome measures in a school setting.
• To assess the impact of building trauma-informed organizational capacity on the acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility of trauma-informed practices in schools.

Main Methods:

• Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to assess the validity of implementation outcome measures.
• Pretest-posttest design with dependent and independent samples t-tests compared participant scores.
• Organizational capacity-building interventions were implemented in school settings.

Main Results:

• CFA results supported the construct validity of the implementation outcome measures in schools.
• Matched participants showed increased feasibility of implementing trauma-informed practices.
• Matched participants reported higher appropriateness and acceptability of practices at posttest.

Conclusions:

• The validated implementation outcome measures can monitor trauma-informed change processes in schools.
• Participation in change processes enhances perceived appropriateness, acceptance, and feasibility of trauma-informed practices.
• Continued assessment of change processes is needed to build effective trauma-informed school systems.