Ten Years Later: An Updated Critical Look at Trauma Informed Care Among Agencies and Systems Serving Youth and Their Families

Abstract

In 2016, we summarized the state of trauma-informed care (TIC) in a special issue of Child Maltreatment by concluding that the practice and implementation of TIC had outpaced the conceptualization of and evidence for TIC. In the decade since, interest in TIC has continued to grow in systems, settings, and organizations that serve children and youth. This 10-year update and new special section was intended to identify promising new TIC research and to describe the current state of TIC. The four papers included in this special section were selected based on their clear definitions of TIC, rigorous evaluation, large-scale implementation of TIC, inclusion of youth/family outcomes, and/or their ability to advance the field of TIC research. These papers add to the slowly growing evidence-base for TIC across a range of child-serving settings. However, growth in TIC practice continues to outpace TIC research. Significant questions remain about the benefits of TIC on youth and families, including how to most effectively and efficently conceptualize and operationalize TIC broadly and in specific settings or for specific populations.