The Challenge of Utilizing Misconduct Data for the Assessment of a Trauma-Informed Intervention

Abstract

As trauma-informed interventions increase in popularity across educational settings, important questions pertaining to the empirical effectiveness of these programs need to be addressed (Thomas et al., 2019). The present study serves as preliminary findings of two east Texas public elementary schools who implemented a Trust-Based Relational Intervention® program to meet the needs of students who have experienced trauma. Researchers analyzed six years of student misconduct data collected at both schools prior to implementing the interventions and found that, in line with past research (Hawken et al., 2007; Martella et al., 2010; Putnam et al., 2003), the misconduct data was not deemed appropriate to determine intervention efficacy for research use. The findings are discussed in terms of the implications for researchers, practitioners, advocates, and policymakers.