A Scoping Review of Trauma-Informed Interventions and Violence Prevention in K-12 Schools in the United States

More than two-thirds of children report experiencing at least one traumatic event by the age of 16. Childhood trauma can negatively affect youth's physical and mental health, learning, relationships, and behavior, with implications for their long-term development. Schools are uniquely positioned and equipped to help youth cope with their trauma and prevent further traumatic events from occurring through programming, policy, and staff training. This scoping review investigates the relationship between trauma-informed school-based efforts and violence prevention in K-12 schools in the United States over the past twenty years (2004-2024). We conducted our review in accordance with PRISMA guidelines and limited our search to peer-reviewed articles published in the following databases: Education Abstracts, ERIC, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Scopus. To be included, studies must meet the criteria for a trauma-informed intervention based on the framework employed by Avery and colleagues (J Child Adolescent Trauma 14(3):381-397, 2021). Findings from the review suggest that trauma-informed school-based efforts (N = 7), such as social-emotional learning curricula, multi-tiered school-level models, and culturally relevant programs, are related to reduced violence in schools. Findings point to how school-based, trauma-informed interventions might be one avenue to addressing school violence and improving school safety, given the role of trauma as both a precursor to and consequence of violence.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12310-026-09874-2.