An Examination of a Gender-Specific and Trauma-Informed Training Curriculum: Implications for Providers.

Residential group care facilities are experiencing an increase in the number of adolescent females in these facilities who have high rates of childhood sexual abuse. The mental health needs of this population are often unrecognized and not treated, which often results in re-victimization. Residential care agencies are actively seeking competent direct care staff members to work with females who have been sexually traumatized. However, gender-specific and trauma-informed training curricula for direct care staff members have lacked clarity and effective implementation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a gender-specific and trauma-informed training curriculum for residential staff. It was hypothesized that participant knowledge score would be different after the training curricula in the treatment group; the pre knowledge score in the control group would remain the same after the treatment group; mean post knowledge would be different between the treatment group and control group; that there would be a significant difference of the post Survey of Knowledge scores between the treatment and control group; and that participant satisfaction score would be different after the training curricula in the treatment group. The participant scores showed some improvement prior to the training curriculum and there was a significant difference between the pre and post knowledge scores for the control group. While results showed that there was no significant difference between the scores of knowledge and retention between the treatment and control group, implications for counselors and recommendations for future studies were provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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