School- and Classroom-Based Supports for Children Following the 2013 Boston Marathon Attack and Manhunt

Abstract

School staff provide key mental health services following mass crisis events and teachers, in particular, can provide important supports within their classrooms. This study examines Boston-area teachers’ perception of classroom-wide psychiatric distress and the types of supports that schools and teachers provided following the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and subsequent manhunt. Boston-area K-12 teachers (N = 147) in communities with varying levels of exposure to the bombing and manhunt completed an anonymous web-based survey 2–5 months after the attack. Teachers reported on students’ exposure to the bombings and manhunt, classroom-wide psychiatric distress, and the types of supports they and their schools provided students. Teacher reports of student exposure to the bombings and manhunt were significantly associated with their perceptions of greater classroom-wide psychiatric distress. Almost half indicated that their school had no formal policy for responding to the crisis, half reported no training to address events, and even the most common classroom-based support strategy—reassuring students of their safety—was provided by only 76 % of teachers. Teacher perceptions of student exposure to the manhunt, but not the bombing, were significantly associated with greater provision of these supports. In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings and manhunt, teachers and schools provided supports; however, the extent and types of supports varied considerably. Working with teachers to most effectively and consistently serve in this complex role has the potential to improve school-based crisis response plans, as well as student outcomes.

Adjustment Among Children With Relatives Who Participated in the Manhunt Following the Boston Marathon Attack

“…Although previous work documents the mental health toll of the Boston Marathon bombing and its aftermath on many Boston-area children, [10,11] the present findings indicate that children with close relatives in law enforcement or the armed forces who participated in the unprecedented interagency manhunt carried a particularly heavy mental health burden. Although it has been estimated that only 0.4-1.5% of the general child population has severely impairing PTSD, [37,38] roughly one out of every nine children sampled with family in the manhunt had "likely PTSD."…”

“…Although research has highlighted the toll of the Marathon bombing on Boston‐area youth, exposures to the subsequent manhunt have actually been more robustly associated than attack‐related exposures with a range of psychosocial outcomes . While such work clarifies the broad impact of manhunt‐related experiences on Boston‐area youth, it does little to inform our understanding of the specific clinical needs of a particularly vulnerable population: children with a relative in law enforcement or the armed services deployed in the manhunt.…”

“…Although research has highlighted the toll of the Marathon bombing on Boston-area youth, exposures to the subsequent manhunt have actually been more robustly associated than attack-related exposures with a range of psychosocial outcomes. [10,11] While such work clarifies the broad impact of manhunt-related experiences on Boston-area youth, it does little to inform our understanding of the specific clinical needs of a particularly vulnerable population: children with a relative in law enforcement or the armed services deployed in the manhunt. Research unrelated to disasters indicates individuals who work in high-risk occupations characterized by day-to-day confrontations with physical danger or extreme stress and involvement with traumatic incidents (e.g., policemen, firefighters, deployed military personnel) are at heightened risk for serious mental health problems, [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] including PTSD, anxiety, depression, substance use, and suicidality.…”

School performance after experiencing trauma: a longitudinal study of school functioning in survivors of the Utøya shootings in 2011

“…These interventions are often efforts from professionals external to the school system. However, there are a growing number of studies on creating trauma-informed schools with focus on school service delivery and a more comprehensive integration of trauma-informed approaches into the larger school context (Fu & Underwood, 2015 ; Green et al, 2015 ; Overstreet & Chafouleas, 2016 ). The Utøya survivors were mostly students in upper secondary school or higher education programs.…”

University student voices on healing and recovery following tragedy.

“…Similarly, studies of K-12 teachers following trauma have found that teachers vary greatly in their knowledge of student crisis-related needs and provision of classroombased supports (Felix et al, 2010;Green et al, 2015). These studies suggest that providing training for faculty and instructors on student MH, in general, and guidelines around how to respond to trauma, specifically, might be particularly beneficial to students.…”