H-392
Childhood Trauma: Dynamics, Interventions, and Cross-Cultural Perspectives
(Formerly titled The Nature of Childhood Trauma: Implications for Differences in Development, Biology, and Psychopathology across the Life Span)
Betsy McAlister Groves
Over the past 30 years, there have been dramatic changes in the knowledge and understanding of childhood trauma and its impact on child development. This research has been accompanied by a growing knowledge of effective interventions. This course focuses on both areas: the nature of childhood trauma and effective interventions for children affected by trauma. The overarching perspective of the course is the consideration of the child’s traumatic experience in an ecological context. Child trauma reverberates not only through the family but also across the larger systems in which the child lives: neighborhoods, schools, and health institutions. Conversely, these systems shape the child’s adaptation to traumatic experiences. The family’s culture is an important determinant of how the child makes meaning of the experience and how the child/family seeks help. The first portion of the course will explore the consequences of early traumatic experiences in the context of psychosocial, biological, and developmental processes. We will focus on both the short-term responses and the longer-term consequences of trauma. We will consider the meaning of trauma in different cultural contexts. The second portion of the course will consider intervention, both clinical and systemic. What do we know about effective interventions? How do ethnicity, culture, and immigrant experiences inform appropriate intervention? How can educational systems be responsive to children affected by trauma? The third portion of the course will consider questions of change at the macro level: What are current policy initiatives that promote trauma-informed interventions or systems? What about prevention? The course will include lectures and discussion; there will be a section. Students will be required to write a case study.
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(Some resources on the course Web site may require a Harvard PIN number)
Prerequisite: Prior knowledge or experience in basic counseling and/or child development theory is helpful.