Psychol Trauma. 2025 Dec 8. doi: 10.1037/tra0002092. Online ahead of print.

OBJECTIVE: As interest in trauma-informed assessment grows, client-level screening and diagnostic tools, as well as organizational- and systems-level evaluation tools, are emerging. However, measures conceptually grounded in a developmental trauma framework are still lacking. The purpose of the present study is to describe the development and initial testing of the Trauma-Informed Child Well-Being Scale (T-CWS), a developmentally informed, relationship-based, and trauma-sensitive measure of child social-emotional well-being.

METHOD: The T-CWS is a 25-item observational tool based on child-caregiver dyadic interactions. Consistent with the principles of trauma-informed care, the T-CWS has three subscales: Connection, Felt-Safety, and Regulation. Participants comprised 20 clinicians who were trained to use the T-CWS and then independently scored 15 prerecorded videos, for a total of 300 observations. Participants also rated the T-CWS for feasibility, appropriateness, and acceptability.

RESULTS: Using generalizability theory to account for the variance attributable to participants, repeated scale items, and repeated videos viewed, analyses indicated moderate to substantial internal consistency. The T-CWS reliably differentiated stable individual differences between cases and was able to detect systemic variation in videos. Further, participants rated the T-CWS as a feasible, appropriate, and acceptable instrument for use in clinical practice.

CONCLUSIONS: The T-CWS shows promise as a new measure for assessing child well-being through the lens of developmental trauma. While further testing is needed, the T-CWS could help providers better evaluate the needs and treatment goals of trauma survivors. Further, the T-CWS could prove useful for assessing individual outcomes associated with trauma-informed care. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

PubMed:41359585 | DOI:10.1037/tra0002092