Trauma-sensitive school concepts for students with a refugee background: A review of international studies.

Children and adolescents with a refugee background are at high risk for
traumatization. Once they arrive in safe countries, schools are the institutions
where teachers are responsible for caring for them sensitively and competently.
Furthermore, schools are organized in learning groups consisting of multiple
peers of the same age, which provides excellent opportunities for social learning
and experiences of social support. In this respect, schools are the appropriate
places where preventive concepts can be applied to students with a refugee
background. This systematic review summarizes studies that examine or evaluate
existing international concepts of trauma-sensitive schools for supporting
traumatized students with a refugee background. Based on N = 41 selected
articles, 17 relevant concepts of trauma-sensitive schools were identified. In
35.3% of the concepts, traumatized students with a refugee background are
explicitly included in the target group of the concept, while 47.1% of the concepts
refer to groups of students with trauma as a result of various adverse childhood
experiences, which also occur more frequently within the population of refugee
children and adolescents 17.6% of the concepts contain specific adaptations
for pupils with a refugee background. The majority of these concepts were
developed in the United States. Additional concepts can be reported for Australia,
the United Kingdom, Turkey, and Cambodia. Based on available empirical data,
no significant effectiveness regarding the researched concepts’ effects on
academic and other school-related data can be determined. Although some
studies indicate positive effects concerning school-related target variables, most
of the studies have only limited significance due to inadequate research designs
and methodological deficiencies. Therefore, there is a great need for further
development, careful implementation, and evaluation of trauma-sensitive
concepts in schools, especially for the growing group of refugee students.