Abstract
Trauma is something many different youth go through in their lives. However, those who've experienced trauma are affected within their school settings and need trauma-specific interventions to be successful in their school performance. The purpose of the of this study was to examine the current research on trauma therapies and how those treatments affect youths' school performance. The areas of school performance that effects youth are their grades, school refusal, negative classroom behaviors and social skills. This systematic review will focus on how cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and other similar treatments such as trauma focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), game based cognitive behavioral therapy (GB-CBT) and cognitive behavioral intervention for trauma in schools (CBITS) effect the grades, school refusal, negative classroom behaviors and social skills of these traumatized youth. A systematic review research design was utilized analyzing 20 studies meeting criteria and these articles were then analyzed. CBT, TF-CBT, GB-CBT and CBITS were all found to be effective when working with youth who experience traumatic symptoms and affect their school performance. However, the findings have shown to be limited and further research is needed to better address the benefits of broader use of trauma therapies in schools.