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TRAILS

Trauma-sensitive diagnostics and support in inclusive schools

Support for trauma-stressed students with refugee background

Research Project
TRAILS

Children and Teenagers who are exposed to war and flight show an increased risk of traumatization and require particularly sensitive and professional pedagogical attention and support. Prof. Dr. Friedrich Linderkamp and Prof. Dr. Gino Casale from the Institute for Educational Research at the University of Wuppertal are investigating what this can look like and how traumatized students can be optimally supported in the research project „TRAILS“

Initial situation

Almost 166,000 asylum applications were made in Germany in 2019, 50.5% of them from children and young people up to the age of 18 (BAMF, 2019). The entries came from crisis and war zones, so that these children and young people are at high risk for traumatization, e.g. due to human trafficking, criminal or sexual exploitation and forced military recruitment (Schröder, Zok & Faulbaum, 2018).

Support for trauma-stressed students with refugee background
Missing concepts

Traumatized students represent a major challenge in inclusion. So far there is a lack of evidence-based concepts for diagnostics and support in this context. Within the TRAILS research project, a participatory developed integrated system of methods for trauma sensitive diagnosis and support of children and adolescents with a refugee background in inclusive schools (TRAILS system) is being implemented and its effectiveness evaluated.

Cooperating schools in NRW wanted!

For the research project, cooperating secondary schools with inclusive classes in grades 5 to 8 from North Rhine-Westphalia are being sought for the period from mid-2023, which also teach students with refugee experiences.

The primary target group of this project are students in grades 5 to 8 at inclusive secondary schools and comprehensive schools who have an increased risk of mental disorders due to traumatic experiences of flight, as well as their teachers and parents.
Prof. Dr. Linderkamp

Research plan & TRAILS-Methods

5 Questions
What are the experiences and needs of teachers, students and parents with trauma-related support at school?
How successful is the implementation of the TRAILS system in inclusive school classes?
Can trauma-related behavioral indicators on the student´s side be psychometrically recorded with a high quality using the diagnostic instruments developed?
Can the implementation of the TRAILS system reduce a) flight-related trauma symptoms and b) psychological problems of the students?
Does the implementation of the TRAILS system improve the cognitive emotion regulation of the students?

Partner & Sponsors

Funding notice

This project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research under the funding code 01NV2128. The responsibility for the content of this homepage lies with the authors.

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