International Journal of Child and Adolescent Resilience

Perspectives of Young Mothers on Trauma-Informed Strategies Proposed by their Community Organization: A Qualitative Case Study

2026-03-19T05:36:45+00:00

Objectives: This case study aimed to explore young mothers’ perspectives of trauma-informed care (TIC) strategies developed by the employees of a community organization they frequent.

Methods: Young mothers (≤25 years old; n = 12), who were already using the organization’s services, were invited to participate in group or individual semi-structured interviews. They were asked to share their opinions on TIC strategies proposed by the employees. This qualitative case study, grounded in pragmatism, used a directed content analysis approach.

Results: The results showed that several TIC strategies were seen as helpful, particularly those offering structured guidance, improved communication, and support from both the organization and peer programs. Perspectives on strategies aiming to increase autonomy were mixed, with mothers valuing opportunities for increased agency over their service participation while emphasizing the importance of continued organizational support. Some strategies initially developed by the employees to address cultural, historical and gender considerations generated limited insights and discussions amongst service participants.

Conclusion: This study contributes to the limited literature on service participants’ perspectives of TIC. While mothers valued most strategies proposed, misalignments with employees’ ideas for TIC strategies demonstrated the relevance of including their voices during TIC implementation. The limited insights on topics related to cultural and gender considerations illustrates the importance of including participants from various social locations.

Implications: This study highlights the relevance for future studies to include service participants in the design and implementation of TIC strategies, and to adopt a collaborative approach that values trauma survivors’ experiential knowledge.

Reflective Functioning in the Intergenerational Continuity of Intimate Partner Violence in Cameroonian Mother-Daughter Dyads

2026-05-19T19:16:23+00:00

Objectives: Individuals exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) in childhood are at increased risk of experiencing IPV in adulthood, but this issue has been under-researched in the African context, where IPV is highly prevalent. The factors involved in the risk of intergenerational continuity of IPV victimization are still poorly understood. Our primary aim was to examine the role of mothers and daughters’ trauma-specific reflective functioning (RF) in this intergenerational continuity, in Cameroonian mother-daughter dyads.

Methods: Sixty-one mother-daughter dyads completed questionnaires individually. Regressions with daughters’ IPV victimization as the dependent variable, and person-level and family-level independent variables (e.g., RF, demographic characteristics, maternal IPV victimization) were run.

Results: Continuity of IPV victimization was found for 88.2% of dyads. Person-level factors associated with increased levels of IPV victimization in daughters, included daughters’ age and RF. Regarding family-level factors, mothers’ IPV victimization experiences were positively associated with daughters’ IPV victimization experiences (ß = 0.612, p < .001); mothers’ RF was not (ß = -0.034, p = .422). The complete model explained 50.5% of the variance of daughters’ IPV victimization.

Conclusion: These results suggest that RF, which may underlie the risk of intergenerational continuity of IPV victimization, should be further considered in practice and research.

Implications: Findings that daughters’ RF and mothers’ IPV victimization experiences are associated with daughters’ IPV victimization can inform both practitioners and policymakers of the importance of these factors in prevention and early intervention efforts to reduce IPV.

Paths to Disclosure: Variability in Adolescent Child Sexual Abuse Reporting Across Instruments

2026-03-19T07:08:51+00:00

Objectives: This study compared rates of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) disclosure across three commonly used assessment instruments in a clinical adolescent sample: the Child Attachment Interview (CAI), the Computerized Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (C-DISC), and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ).

Methods: Participants (N = 421) completed one or more of the instruments. CSA disclosure rates were calculated for each, and McNemar’s tests were used to compare rates of disclosure between each pair of tools.

Results: The CAI yielded the highest overall percentage of CSA disclosures (18.8%), followed by the C‑DISC (13.1%), and the CTQ (12.9%). However, McNemar’s test revealed that while the CAI elicited significantly more disclosures than the C‑DISC, it did not differ significantly from the CTQ. The CAI and CTQ each identified unique cases not captured by the other, while the C‑DISC consistently elicited the fewest disclosures.

Implications: Findings suggest that different instruments may facilitate disclosure for different subgroups of adolescents. The CAI’s narrative relational format may support disclosure for some youth, while the CTQ’s private self‑report format may do so for others. The C-DISC’s structured symptom-based format may limit reflective processing. These results underscore the need for multi-method assessment strategies to more fully capture CSA experiences.

Trauma and Society: Intervention Development Report on a Trauma-Specific Psychoeducation Course for Adolescents in Schools, Residential, and Community Settings

2026-05-13T20:58:05+00:00

Objectives: We report on the development of Trauma and Society (T&S), an innovative trauma-specific program. T&S is a mental health literacy program, a psychoeducation intervention, and a standards-aligned social studies or health elective course for adolescents in high school and cross-sector settings.

Methods: We built the T&S intervention on theory, similar trauma psychoeducation interventions for other client populations, experience implementing psychoeducation in the healthcare sector, and a 3-step patient and public involvement (PPI) process. It is manualized for individual, small-group, and classroom use. The credit-bearing course format for use in schools is aligned with the national common core for social studies and for health and consistent with the Understanding by Design™ framework.

Results: The prototype was evaluated by 7 adult and 14 adolescent stakeholders who provided extensive feedback. The “mock lesson” beta testing by a small group of interns (n = 16) provided detailed input on key content, leveling of homework assignments, lesson format and content, group dynamics in a virtual class setting, and feedback about the writing and layout of the student materials. Ecological momentary assessment of “distress scores” among these youth indicated a high level of safety. Peer review of the student book by one cadre of school mental health professionals (n = 14) gave strong insight into the forms of manualization needed to support implementation and acceptability for staff.

Conclusions: The fully-manualized pilot version of the T&S intervention and curriculum is ready for cross-sector early-adopter demonstration projects and outcomes research.