Childhood Posttraumatic Stress and School-Related Behaviors: A Scoping Review

An increasing body of research has indicated that childhood posttraumatic stress (PTS) is associated with different aspects of cognitive, emotional, social, and behavioral functioning in childhood. That said, this study attempted to collect, map, and synthesize the existing knowledge regarding the effects of PTS on school-related behaviors of children between 6 and12 years old within or beyond the school settings. With this aim, a scoping review was carried out by searching for both peer-reviewed and grey literature published between 2016 and 2021 in 5 academic research databases (ERIC, Scopus, PsycArticles, PubMed, and ScienceDirect). Following screening and selection, 9 studies were finally included in this scoping review. These studies featured a relationship between PTS and a variety of educational outcomes that were further affected by various individual and environmental mediating factors. The specific effect of such factors and studying separately different age groups (as the studies in this review involved mixed samples of both children and adolescents) and the role of teachers in identifying trauma signs in class are critical aspects that future research on trauma and school-related behaviors should investigate.