Abstract
Children and adolescents in the U.S. and worldwide are commonly exposed to traumatic events. There are several questions regarding childhood trauma that this study aimed to explore. The focus of this systematic review was to explore the prevalence and impact trauma has on children, necessary qualities of trauma informed care, and what treatment methods are commonly used in various service agencies working with children exposed to trauma. Additionally, this systematic review aimed to explore barriers to implementing trauma informed care. Results identified several intervention strategies including; Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT), Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Traumatized Students (CBITS), Seeking Safety (SS), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Attachment Self-Regulation Competency (ARC), Trauma Affect Regulation: Guidelines for Education and Therapy (TARGET), Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), and Calm Attuned Present Predictable Don't (CAPPD). The findings of this study have several implications for future research for clinical social work practices with children exposed to trauma. There appears to be a lack of research evaluating the other treatment interventions and their effectiveness when working with children exposed to trauma. Due to the millions of youth in the U.S. estimated to have experienced at least one traumatic event, more research in the area of effective treatment interventions used to treat childhood trauma is a need.