This book serves as a practical guide for clinicians and other professionals working with children and adolescents exposed to trauma, offering an overview and rationale for a comprehensive approach to trauma-informed assessment, including key domains and techniques. Building on more than 2 decades of work in collaboration with the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), the book provides strategies for conducting an effective trauma-informed assessment that can be used in practice to support the treatment planning and intervention process, family engagement and education, and collaboration and advocacy with other providers. As part of APA's Division 56 series, Concise Guides on Trauma Care, the book surveys a range of recommended tools and considerations for selecting and implementing those tools across stages of development and in relation to a child's sociocultural context. The authors also examine challenges that may arise in the context of trauma-informed assessment and suggest approaches to overcome those barriers.

There are many issues that are important to evaluating children and adolescents, and it is increasingly clear that reliance on just one type of assessment is not enough. In this volume, Kathleen Nader has compiled an articulate and comprehensive guide to the complex process of assessment in youth and child trauma.

"Assessing and Treating Youth Exposed to Traumatic Stress is a cogent, caring, and comprehensive response to the reality that many children live lives of constant threat, fear, and confusion while lacking opportunities for positive social interactions, stimulation, and empowerment. Although the book is written for mental health clinicians, teachers and others who support traumatized youth will find this book an essential addition to their professional libraries. Identifying these children is the first step, and the importance of careful assessment through use of the clinical interview--in both individual and group settings--is emphasized. In addition, the population with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is highly diverse in terms of presentation and target symptoms, and the book explores differences in type, duration, and accumulation of trauma, age of insult, stress vulnerability, family history, and other individual factors. Nearly a dozen of treatment options are presented in the book, and they are distinguished by setting, such as clinic, home, or school, and modality, such as psychotherapy or pharmacology. Attention is also paid to preventive measures, most of which are school- or group-based, to increase resiliency where possible."--

Assessment of Trauma in Youths: Understanding issues of age, complexity, and associated variables is a collection of articles by well-known specialists in the field of childhood trauma. The articles describe developmental issues in addition to others that are important to the assessment of trauma-exposed youth, to the ongoing refinement of trauma-related diagnoses for children, and to understanding PTSD and more complicated reactions to trauma for young people. The book explores trauma in very young to middle childhood aged children, trauma in adolescents, childhood complicated trauma, and childhood complicated grief. It considers PTSD and Reactive Attachment Disorder as well as discussing disorders that are under continued study such as Developmental Trauma Disorder, Prolonged Grief Disorder, and Traumatic Grief. In the second half of the book, chapters look at the associated features of childhood traumatic response such as genetics and personality, cortisol, poly-victimization, and guilt and shame. Variables such as cortisol reactivity and guilt/shame may influence or follow traumas in children. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Child and Adolescent Trauma.

In this volume, Kathleen Nader has compiled an articulate and comprehensive guide to the complex process of assessment in youth and adolescent trauma. There are many issues that are important to evaluating children and adolescents, and it is increasingly clear that reliance on just one type of assessment does not provide the most accurate results. From history to recent advances, this book covers a wide range of methods and measures for assessing trauma, including case examples to illustrate the integration of these different facets. Altogether, the broad scope and inclusive depth of this work make it an essential addition to the field of trauma assessment.

Assessment of Trauma in Youths: Understanding issues of age, complexity, and associated variables is a collection of articles by well-known specialists in the field of childhood trauma. The articles describe developmental issues in addition to others that are important to the assessment of trauma-exposed youth, to the ongoing refinement of trauma-related diagnoses for children, and to understanding PTSD and more complicated reactions to trauma for young people. The book explores trauma in very young to middle childhood aged children, trauma in adolescents, childhood complicated trauma, and childhood complicated grief. It considers PTSD and Reactive Attachment Disorder as well as discussing disorders that are under continued study such as Developmental Trauma Disorder, Prolonged Grief Disorder, and Traumatic Grief. In the second half of the book, chapters look at the associated features of childhood traumatic response such as genetics and personality, cortisol, poly-victimization, and guilt and shame. Variables such as cortisol reactivity and guilt/shame may influence or follow traumas in children. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Child and Adolescent Trauma.

This book serves as a practical guide for clinicians and other professionals working with children and adolescents exposed to trauma, offering an overview and rationale for a comprehensive approach to trauma-informed assessment, including key domains and techniques. Building on more than 2 decades of work in collaboration with the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), the book provides strategies for conducting an effective trauma-informed assessment that can be used in practice to support the treatment planning and intervention process, family engagement and education, and collaboration and advocacy with other providers. As part of APA's Division 56 series, Concise Guides on Trauma Care, the book surveys a range of recommended tools and considerations for selecting and implementing those tools across stages of development and in relation to a child's sociocultural context. The authors also examine challenges that may arise in the context of trauma-informed assessment and suggest approaches to overcome those barriers.