Abstract
In their quest to provide a wholistic education, schools are providing more in-house source services to students. Specifically, schools are responding to the aftermath of childhood trauma and/or toxic stress, which commonly manifest as negative behaviors and emotional dysregulation in the classroom. Teachers are unable to respond to the individual needs of students with mental health issues and are often perplexed by their behavioral displays. More innovative classroom management philosophies, like post-traumatic growth, can provide students with skills and internal resources to deal with adversity—presently and in the future. For more complex behavioral presentations, school social workers can provide clinical interventions, social service connections for students and families, and partner with teachers for increased efficacy of students struggling with emotional dysregulation and disruptive mood dysregulation disorder.
TopIntroduction
The purpose of this chapter is to discuss challenges common to students struggling with emotional dysregulation, their behavioral presentations in classrooms, and the overall school response. As awareness of childhood trauma and negative outcomes increases, so does the expected response from educational institutions (Danielson et al., 2021). Schools continue to take on more responsibilities than just a child’s academic education. In the USA, schools commonly provide nutritional services, clothing closets, school supplies, family-wide networking for needed items, mental health services, and more. Additionally, students with challenging mental health issues and disabilities are spending more time in traditional classrooms to experience the benefits of inclusion and mainstreaming, resulting in more behavioral issues for teachers (Tiernan et al., 2020). Disruptions in classroom management potentially interrupt learning for all students, putting them in danger of not obtaining the educational skills needed to successfully move forward with scaffolded learning (Danielson et al., 2021). This chapter will discuss trauma, toxic stress, and research surrounding adverse childhood experiences (ACE) scores. The physical and neurological response of the body to trauma will be explored, as well as how ongoing toxic stress can establish negative outcomes correlated to significant behavioral issues in children and adolescents. The chapter will discuss specific negative behaviors commonly manifested from trauma, with an emphasis on disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD) and other disorders with primary symptoms of emotional dysregulation.
Secondly, the chapter will discuss what schools can do to assist children with emotional dysregulation issues. Educational organizations need to adopt a comprehensive and systematic response from all levels—specifically school policies, classroom behavioral modification plans, and increased presence of school social workers (SSW) for more challenging student presentations—as well as partnering with community mental health services to assist students and families. The chapter will also discuss the undue burden on teachers to meet challenges of delivering educational content while balancing the needs of children with emotional dysregulation issues. The promise of post-traumatic growth philosophies in the classroom, consistency with treatment planning, and the need to provide out-of-classroom treatment modalities for students with significant behavioral issues will be examined. The chapter will provide a call to action for schools to increase the presence of SSW, who are trained to provide the cognitive-behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), group treatment, trauma-informed techniques, and other interventions students struggling with emotional dysregulation issues need.
Lastly, the chapter will discuss the need for additional research into emotional dysregulation, as there are currently no standard adopted practices for children and adolescents with these issues (Knopf, 2017). DMDD is a new diagnosis recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; [DSM]). Several complexities exist in securing an accurate diagnosis due to the commonality of emotional dysregulation in other childhood disorders (Pedrini et al., 2021). Additional research is needed on the topic and the development of more effective interventions and treatment modalities, specifically those that benefit students and schools. The need for specific training for school staff and faculty to increase confidence in approaching challenging behaviors will be discussed, along with ideas for prevention methods that decrease exhibited behaviors by students and increase the overall safety of students, staff, and faculty.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Emotional Dysregulation: Considerable difficulty accepting or exhibiting developmentally appropriate emotional responses to negative situations.
School Social Worker: A protected term used to denote a classically trained social worker from a school accredited by the Council on Social Work Education. Dependent on state regulations, school social workers are required to have a bachelor’s and/or master’s degree in social work to practice in educational settings. The school social worker serves as the liaison between the school and the student and is responsible for the social, behavioral, and mental health needs of the student body.
Toxic Stress: The totality of physical, emotional, social, cognitive, and/or spiritual burden due to prolonged exposure to aversive living environments.
Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder: A specific diagnosis reserved for children who exhibit a persistently irritable mood and engage in temper outburst (aka temper tantrums) that are severe in intensity and duration and are significantly disproportionate to the situation.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy: A collection of techniques used to help a person stay in the present, identify unhelpful behaviors, and ways to change them into something more helpful.
Resilience: One’s collective ability to deal with adversity—physically, mentally, cognitively, and spiritually.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A logical, action-oriented, and problem-solving approach to change unwanted behaviors.
Trauma: An emotional and/or physical reaction to events that are perceived as frightening and/or threatening to a person.
Complex Trauma: Results when various forms of maltreatment occur at the same time or to the same person, especially in children, and/or involve sexually based traumas.
Post-Traumatic Growth: The positive psychological changes that can occur following a traumatic event due to intentional cognitive, emotional, and social perspectives to glean growth from suffering.
Temper Outburst: A display of strong emotions, usually anger or frustration. The outburst can escalate over time or be sudden, and it can be physical and/or verbal. Synonymous with the term temper tantrum .