Submission Deadline: May 1, 2017
Special Issue Editors
Kathleen M. Chard, PhD
Rochelle F. Hanson, PhD
Background
Statistics regarding the number of children and adolescents exposed to a broad range of traumatic events are sobering.
Prior to age 18, approximately 6% of youth will experience at least 1 episode of sexual victimization, 30% (and higher) will experience physical assault, up to 48% of youth will witness violence in their community or home, 9-18% will experience actual or online victimization, and 20% of youth will experience more than one type of trauma.1
Further, if not treated, symptoms associated with trauma (e.g., emotional dysregulation, disruptive behavior) can have a debilitating effect on the capacity to learn and overall academic performance: students experiencing trauma have lower grade point averages, more reported absences from school than other students; and an increased risk for drop-out.2
Despite the adverse psychological and social consequences, youth who experience trauma are reluctant to seek help in settings such as clinics or community health centers. School psychologists are in a unique position to both identify and work with such youth, and schools themselves provide an ideal forum for universal prevention and intervention programs.
Details
This special topic section of School Psychology Quarterly will be devoted to the publication of scientifically rigorous papers, which focus on how best to identify and treat youth experiencing trauma and trauma-related symptoms in educational settings.
The special section will be edited by Kathleen M. Chard and Rochelle F. Hanson, and is slated to appear in the final issue of 2017.
We are particularly interested in receiving empirical studies on the nature and correlates associated with trauma, as well as novel school-based prevention and treatment approaches.
Examples of appropriate manuscripts include (but are not limited to):
- Development, refinement, or implementation of assessment or screening tools
- Development or evaluation (i.e., feasibility, acceptability, outcomes) of clinical approaches, interventions or programs that can be applied in schools
- Tailoring or adapting established interventions or clinical approaches for use with specific cultural groups
- Research relevant to the clinical training of school psychologists
- Correlational research on risk/resiliency factors associated with educational/psychological outcomes of youth experiencing trauma
Manuscript length for the special section will be determined based on the quality and number of proposals, but is targeted to not exceed the journal standard of 6,000 words, inclusive of all tables, figures, and references.
Submitted manuscripts will be given blind peer review, as per usual journal policy, prior to a final decision on publication.
Manuscripts must be submitted electronically through the journal’s online submission website. Please select “Special Section Article: Trauma-Focused Interventions” as the article type.
Please direct all inquiries to Kathleen M. Chard or Rochelle F. Hanson.