Trauma-focused-cbt and racial socialization for traumatized black youth: demographic and clinical outcomes

This presentation describes youth demographics and clinical outcomes of a SAMHSA-sponsored National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) learning community for integrating trauma-focused CBT (TF-CBT) + racial socialization (RS) for traumatized Black youth. Clinicians who participated in the learning community provided deidentified demographic data to the project coordinator at pretreatment, and Child PTSD Symptom Scale for DSM-5 (CPSS-5) total scores at pretreatment and posttreatment. Paired-samples t tests evaluated pretreatment to posttreatment improvement in PTSD scores on the CPSS-5. χ2 tests were used to determine whether there were significant differences between treatment completers and dropouts. Mixed design ANOVA was used to determine whether TF-CBT +RS was less effective for some groups. To date, among the 50 youth who initially began TF-CBT+RS treatment, 28 have completed treatment and posttreatment CPSS-5, 8 continue in treatment, and 14 have dropped out or completed treatment but not the posttreatment CPSS-5 (“noncompleters”). There have been no significant differences between completers and noncompleters with regard to demographic variables; no noncompleters have identified as nonbinary, queer/questioning, or bisexual. Among the 28 treatment completers, all identified race as Black and none endorsed being Hispanic. Youth completers described their gender identity as being female (n = 12), male (n = 14), and nonbinary (n = 2), and described their sexual orientation as heterosexual/straight (n = 23), queer/questioning (n = 3), and bisexual (n = 2). Among completers, there was significant improvement in posttraumatic stress symptoms reported on the CPSS-5, with pretreatment mean of 43.18 (SD 17.55) (severe PTSD) to posttreatment mean of 24.21 (SD 15.45) (moderate PTSD; t = 4.42; p = .00002). No significant differences were found based on sexual orientation or gender identity, but the numbers were too small to draw any conclusions in this regard. Integrating TF-CBT and RS appears to be promising for Black youth who have experienced trauma. Data from a larger and more diverse randomized controlled trial would be helpful. These findings also suggest that integrating RS with other trauma-focused treatments may contribute to positive mental health outcomes for Black youth.