Changes in knowledge, beliefs, self-efficacy, and affective commitment to change following trauma-informed care education for pediatric service providers.

OBJECTIVE

As organizations strive to build trauma-informed care (TIC) systems, further understanding of individual and organizational characteristics that may impact implementation is needed. The objective of this study was to assess changes in affective commitment, beliefs, foundational knowledge, and self-efficacy following completion of a TIC curriculum for a group of interprofessional pediatric service providers. Understanding effects of training on the perceptions of organizational support held by participants was also central to our inquiry.

METHOD

A quasi-experimental pre/post design was used to assess the effectiveness of a curriculum comprising a required prereading component and a 4-hour interactive educational experience. The in-person session was designed to prompt a full appreciation of the impact of traumatic events on brain development and the long-term consequences of traumatic stress and historical trauma. Professionals recruited from several Midwestern pediatric service organizations completed pre- and posteducation surveys, answering questions on the Affective Commitment to TIC scale, Beliefs about Trauma subscale, Foundational Knowledge subscale, Principal Support for TIC, and TIC Self-Efficacy subscale.

RESULTS

Findings suggest that the proposed TIC curriculum effectively increased participants' TIC beliefs, knowledge, and self-efficacy as well as their perceptions of organizational support.

CONCLUSIONS

We propose that TIC trainings tailored to the specific needs of the target audience hold potential toward promoting systemic organizational change among pediatric agencies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).