Current Practice of Family-Based Interventions for Child Traumatic Stress: Results from a National Survey

Abstract

Clinical practice and research indicate an important role for family-based interventions for child traumatic stress. However, the field lags behind family-based intervention science for other childhood mental health problems and individual treatment for child traumatic stress. This study describes the current practice of family-based interventions for child traumatic stress across a national network of programs serving traumatized children. Although most programs delivered at least one family-based intervention, less than a third of interventions identified had a treatment manual, and few had data to support intervention efficacy. More detailed information is needed on matching the family-based interventions to clinical contexts, establishing effective family engagement strategies, identifying culturally specific adaptations, as well as developmentally matched protocols for child traumatic stress.

Keywords:

• Family-based interventions
• child traumatic stress
• survey study

Acknowledgments

At the time this study was conducted, Risë B. Goldstein, Ph.D., M.P.H., was an Associate Research Epidemiologist with the Center for Community Health, UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, Los Angeles.