Psychology – Literature Review

Introduction

The relevance of the Social Work Practice

The research topic refers to the implications of either social work practice or social welfare policy in the school setting. The relevance of the given topic correlates with the need to investigate the issue of whether the local public schools are able to help students recover from grief and loss. The idea is to understand how these schools might be valuable in assisting students by providing them with everything required. One of the most efficient ways to investigate the research topic in detail is to analyze the post-disaster trauma that is usually accompanied by both grief and loss among the students (Franks, 2011).

Purpose of the Literature Review on the Social Welfare Policy in the Context of School

The purpose of the literature review is to dig deeper into the problem and in particular the conditions that exist in the local public schools today. A special concern of the study is to come up with the ideas on the research topic based on the combination of theoretical frameworks such as cognitive behavior therapy and narrative therapy. At the same time, the purpose of reviewing the relevant literature on the social work practice and/or social welfare policy is to address a number of risk factors that can be observed at the local public schools today. Such risks tend to have a questionable long-term effect that merely has no shared model of the application by the academic institutions. The major interest is to examine the implications of the school-based traumas that may lead to a number of severe consequences in terms of students’ mental health. However, the social settings do not correspond to these consequences making it impossible to apply certain post-disaster interventions at the local public schools. In addition, there are curious facts about protective factors. One of these factors is the ways these local public schools use mental health interventions to help students recover from possible disasters. Such disasters may include Hurricane Katrina. In parallel, the possible context in which the students may need some further assistance is sexual violence. In both cases mentioned above students are in a great need of the school’s assistance. Hence, the research investigates whether the schools are able to help students cope with the post-disaster traumas. This help from the position of schools also includes the acquired ability of students to deal with grief and pain that have a long-lasting effect. However, it is also important to acknowledge that the problems of the students at the local public schools are different in their nature, depending on the community at these schools and the uniqueness of their traumas. Simultaneously, it is significant to consider the conditions under which various traumas take place at the local public schools. In other words, this refers to the practical issue in the context of other research studies that investigate the implications of social work practice and/or social welfare in the real-life scenarios for the students. Overall, the introduction to the research topic correlates with the results of similar research studies in terms of the conceptual framework. It is also related to the application of alternative theories in support of the students at the local public schools (Smith, Donlon, Anderson, Hughes, & Jones, 2015).

The Research Strategy

The research strategy used for reviewing the studies on social work practice and/or social welfare refers to the criteria that include only practical information and exclude most theoretical considerations. Overall, the idea of such a selection of the reviewed literature in the research is to address the publications that are of the most value to the target readers. It includes both the school members such as teachers and administration and the students themselves. The idea is that these target audiences are indeed interested in exploring the topic of dealing with both grief and pain after the post-disaster trauma at the local public schools (Grassetti et al., 2015).

Justification of the Research Strategy

For this reason, the selected research strategy could be justified by the strategy related criteria. The researcher considered merely the aspects of treatments related to understanding the developmental framework based on which the students are able to recover from the post-disaster trauma. It also correlates with the combination of the group treatments grounded on the education of students before the traumas. The researcher also considered the research of the post-traumatic growth of the students in their adulthood. The focus is laid on the clinical implications that arise today in the context of the work practice and/or social welfare. The other aspects of concern are the review of public tragedies along with their impact on the community practice observed at the local public schools. The goal is to review the approaches that are to help students deal with both grief and loss. At the same time, the research examined the longitudinal relationships between the maladaptive traumas by means of dealing with stress. These studies examined the mass shooting followed by the anxiety of the adolescent population at the local public schools. In addition, the researcher evaluated the mental health services of these local public schools in terms of helping students live through the post-disaster periods. It was a public health framework related to the application of the school psychology at schools with the international students, which involved the experiences of different ethnic groups (Littleton, Axsom, & Grills-Taquechel, 2011).

Advances of the Research Strategy

Thus, the advances of the research field could be the use of the implications of international psychology applied at the local public schools. The major concern was related to offering help to traumatized students in different parts of the world. At the same time, the interest of the research deals with the perception of hope by the students at these schools. The studies examined the context of interventions applied in the group work with the students who experienced a collective trauma. This is related to social work with the groups of students at the local public schools. In addition, the given study correlates with the overall contemplations on the grief and loss among the students based on the evidence-based practices at the local public schools. The final concern is related to the ways of searching for the means by which the educators at these schools could have a strong positive impact on their students and promote the post-traumatic adaptation. The major implication of such adaptation corresponds to the ability of students to deal with stress and anxiety. Overall, all the above aspects of interest in the given research refer to the theoretical approach to the studies. The major concern is the application of cognitive behavior therapy and narrative therapy that will be addressed in detail in the following review of relevant literature (Salloum, 2015).

Structured Literature Review

Theoretical Implications of the Research Study

The findings of the research combine the implications of the cognitive behavioral theory and those of the narrative theory. The focus is laid on the ways the students at the local public schools experience and deal with both grief and loss after the traumatic events. The cognitive behavioral theory refers to the area of the psychotherapy that deals with the consequences of depression, including the number of mental health disorders. The idea of the cognitive behavioral theory is to help people solve their problems by changing their way of thinking when dealing with traumatic events. It also refers to the aspects of helping people cope with both depression and anxiety in relation to the life scenarios that are not controllable. The advancement of the cognitive behavioral theory lies in its ability to stimulate people for relief by means of conditioning the environments of patients. Thus, the patients become able to think more rationally and acknowledge the given problem as well as the ways of dealing with the negative consequences based on the prominent strategies with the use of a therapeutic approach. At the same time, the value of the cognitive behavioral theory lies in its unconscious meaning for the patients that have a positive impact on their behaviors. Instead, the therapists help people fight their grief and loss by means of using a so-called feared stimulus and an evasion reaction. As a result, the patients start perceiving their problems with a conditioned approach to the fear of traumatic events. Consequently, such a therapy has a positive influence on people since it addresses their conscience and thus improves their behaviors and overall interactions with other people. Overall, the benefits of the cognitive behavioral theory lie in the combination of cognitive behavioral therapies that help patients deal with their conscience improving their mood as well as helping them cope with anxiety. Such an approach also has a positive correlation with respect to the development of a personality after the traumatic events. The other positive changes are related to people’s habits such as eating and getting rid of various negative addictions or dependences affecting psychiatric disorders. As a result, the application of such a theory plays a vital role in terms of helping students deal with the implications of both grief and loss at the local public schools. The researchers state that the cognitive behavioral theory has proven to be valuable in terms of its approach to the patients and the application of the overall psychodynamic treatments (Kropf & Jones, 2014).

Nevertheless, there are other implications of the researchers related to the questions of the validity and overall value of such treatments that address the narrative therapy as a substitution of the cognitive behavioral theory. This is the reason for taking advantage of this theory in terms of helping students deal with their negative emotions after the traumatic events at the local public schools. In particular, narrative therapy is alternative psychotherapy that helps patients perceive their personal identity and understand the theory’s values to acknowledge their problems. The implication of this therapy is to help the patients approach the negative emotions with respect to a narrative on their new personalities applied by understanding the history and succession of their individual qualities. This is more likely to be related to social justice with respect to the therapeutic discussions on the challenges faced by patients. The idea is to help them avoid the destructive ways of existence and continue developing themselves in the form of a narrative. It has proven to be effective in both the family setting and the context of local public schools. In other words, it means that the use of the narrative theory might help students learn how to interact with other people after the traumatic events. It also corresponds to the other practices of students such as the community work, education at the local public schools and is ready for future education and employment (Openshaw, 2011).

Practical Implications of Students after the Traumatic Events towards the Grief and Loss

The concerns on the grief and loss implications refer to the ability of the students to deal with these emotions. However, the teachers at the local public schools should make it a particular priority to help them deal with their negative experiences after the traumatic events. The implications of grief and loss may correspond to the sudden unexpected health issues in families or among friends at schools. In such cases, the reaction of the students could be different depending on their age group as well as their overall individual readiness for the traumatic events. As a result, the students experience negative emotions that make their school life complicated. The examples of such challenges for these students are the following: complaints on a variety of aspects about their lives; constant sadness; greater problems with the home assignments compared to other students; loss of appetite; sleeping disorders; loss of interest in any further learning; loss of interest in their personal growth or professional development, etc. For this reason, the teachers at the local public schools should attract these students to the engaging activities that will result in the number of positive activities that could substitute their negative emotions such as grief and loss. Thus, the idea of using certain remedies to help the students cope with their negative emotions is to help them adapt to the new school life without the risk of childhood traumatic syndromes. Because of the positive application of the healing therapies, the teachers could help their students get rid of a number of symptoms after experiencing the traumas resulting in grief and loss. As a result, the students will be able to become stronger both emotionally and physically, which could have a long-lasting effect up until the end of the school years and even during their future employment. Thus, the teachers are the major parties to help students in the social work practice or social welfare policy in the school setting. However, there is a need to lay a stronger emphasis and provide a thorough analysis of the preschool, elementary, middle and high school students’ experiences with respect to the students’ needs for fighting the traumatic events or any further difficulties (Kilmer et al., 2014).

The effects of traumatic events on the preschool students are related to a sense of losing the learned age-related indicators so that it could challenge their behaviors in terms of wetting their beds, sucking their thumbs or regressing to the humbler communication. These students could also become clingier in relation to their parents, which could also lead to anxiety in terms of the safety of their parents. The number of studies shows that such students are also more short-tempered, which further results in a great number of outbursts that require a more challenging approach to relaxing them during the schools hours. These students could also have a tendency for the contrary behaviors, which mean that they tend to be more introversive, unresponsive and even silent after the traumatic events. The other examples of the behaviors among these students are having sleeping disorders and nightmares about the traumatic events. Overall, they tend to experience the posttraumatic play after the event is over (Grassetti et al., 2015).

In parallel, the elementary school students could also have indicators for the stress symptoms in terms of having a number of complaints on various kinds of pain in the body, including headaches and stomachaches. Traumatic events could also lead to the changes in their behaviors in terms of being more irritated, aggressive and angry, which illustrates the inconsistency of these behaviors. Such changes in the behaviors of students also lead to the challenges to approach the school education system. It resembles a number of difficulties in the overall performance at the local public schools, which is added with the inability to be attentive during the lessons. At the same time, such changes among the students with the posttraumatic behaviors result in the poor ability to concentrate during the classes, while attendance of the schools becomes less frequent. In addition, these students repeatedly ask teachers about the traumatic events with no hint of unsafe learning environments or threats at the local public schools (Smith et al., 2015).

The middle and high school students have a slightly different reaction to the traumatic events, which means having a better understanding of the event. It is also related to the improved ability to cope with the negative emotional backgrounds and have an overall adequate response to the traumatic events. At the same time, these students are self-conscious and experience feelings of guilt or shame in terms of traumatic events. However, these students could also have thoughts on possible revenge and/or retribution. In other words, it means that the teachers should monitor the ability of students to react to the traumatic events since it could have a negative impact on their future perceptions of the world. Such a fundamental shift in the evolution of both positive and negative thoughts could play a vital role in their ability to find a place at the local public schools. At the same time, the inability to deal with the negative implications of the traumatic events could lead to the number of difficulties in terms of students’ interaction with other people. For example, in cases when a teacher is not able to help these students, it could result in the self-destructive and disaster-prone behaviors, including the perception of having irresponsible behaviors. This could also continue to the shift in their social relationships with the family members as well as classmates or teachers. Ultimately, the students after the traumatic events might show a poor school performance, which includes attendance or poor behavior (Salloum, 2015).

Summary

Major Areas of Agreement / Consistency

The vast majority of considerations are similar with respect to the nature of the traumatic events. In most studies, the traumatic events refer to the rapid and unpredicted incidences that lead to strong fear and could encompass the threat of physical harm or the actual physical harm at the local public schools. A traumatic experience may have a profound impact on the physical and/or mental health of students and their further development. The major insights reflect the ways students handle traumas depending on their level of development or age. Therefore, the teachers at the local public schools should have a thorough understanding of the ways of how students perceive traumatic events. At the same time, it makes sense to address the ways such events influence these students in terms of experiencing long-lasting distress and further engagement in education at the local public schools. The idea is to understand how the teachers can actually help their students during such a challenging time (Nastasi, Overstreet, & Summerville, 2011).

The other concern that is on the stage of agreement and/or consistency across the research studies is the overall impact of the traumas on the students. Many researchers consider that the traumatic experience may lead to a deep feeling of pain and sorrow related to the concept of the students’ safety at the local public schools. In other words, the students may have a feeling of anxiety about their actions during the stressful event and afterward. Such events often result in the negative experiences of the students who feel shame and guilt because of their actions. It refers to both what they were thinking of and what they actually did during the traumatic events. Such instances may lead to their involvement in the continuous recapping of the implications of the traumatic event with respect to the feeling of being speechless, afraid and sad (Powell & Blanchet-Cohen, 2014).

Major Areas of Disagreement, Controversy or Debate

Other aspects of research refer to the implications of controversy, disagreement and ongoing debates. The major areas of concern are related to the variations of the traumatic events for the students at the local public schools along with the impact that such traumas have on the ability of these students to study property. In particular, the variations of the traumatic events for the students correspond to the ability of the teachers to foresee the possible reactions of these students to the traumatic events. It is also related to the age of these students and their current level of development. Such conditions of the students at the local public schools refer to the incredible inconsistency among the students in terms of the post-traumatic symptoms regarding their ability to learn and desire to behave well at schools. This could commonly hinder their further education. The range of specific reactions to the traumatic events refers to the number of factors such as the penultimate history of trauma, including the possible grief and loss of the students. It could also correlate with the possible mental health issues known as anxiety and depression or any other problems with behaviors followed by the personalized dissimilarities of the students’ temper (Kilmer et al., 2014).

The alternative concern of controversy and/or disagreement is related to the impact of the traumatic events on the learning capacity of these students. In other words, the traumatic events could have a strong negative impact on the ability of students to learn at the local public schools, including their ability to approach teachers. In particular, there are certain levels of emotional distress that lead to further negative changes in the behavior of students and are followed by the feeling of grief and loss. Such negative implications also lead to the poor attendance of these students along with their overall efforts to study and interact properly with the teachers and other students. For example, these traumatized students actually have lower grades and a higher percentage of absences compared to other students. As a result, these students could have more difficulties in the future in regard to their ability to learn both at the local public schools and being able not to behave in an aggressive manner. Hence, the local public schools should support such students by educating teachers on both emotional and physical challenges that students could experience after the traumatic events (Kropf & Jones, 2014).

Conclusion

The given research covers the implications of the social work practice and social welfare policy in the school setting. However, still, not many research studies examine the negative consequences of the traumatic events on the students at the local public schools. Therefore, more research should be conducted to add more value to the given studies. The areas to continue the study should correspond to the in-depth emphasis on the ways of how the local public schools and teachers, in particular, could help students deal with the negative consequences of the traumatic events. The corrections should refer to the perceptions of the students based on their age, individual differences and overall readiness to the traumatic events. The other corrections should be oriented on reviewing the additional studies on the social work practice or social welfare policy at the local public schools. The purpose is to take advantage of not only of the theoretical research findings but also of the practical research studies that address the major issues of the problem. To conclude, the gap of the research refers to the implications in which many researchers state that the effects of the traumatic events on the students could be different and should be dissimilar at the local public schools. For this reason, further research studies should address the need to experiment more in terms of meeting the needs of the students after the traumatic events and the differences in the perceptions of the preschool, elementary, middle and high school students.