Evaluating the Impact of Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) Perspective in Social Work Curriculum

A trauma-informed care (TIC) curriculum was integrated into a school of social work master’s level program. Measures assessed the impact of the curriculum on first and advanced-year students’ knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy, and behavioral intention at the beginning and end of a semester. Initial comparisons show advanced-year students as having more knowledge about TIC, more positive attitudes toward TIC, higher levels of self-efficacy to use TIC approaches, and greater likelihood to engage in TIC behaviors than first-year students. However, by the end of the semester, the latter were equivalent with advanced students on all measures. Results suggest the first-year curriculum provides sufficient background in TIC approaches to allow for significant gains across all areas assessed. However, integration of the TIC perspective within advanced courses needs further assessment.