Date of Award
5-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Degree Discipline
Clinical Adolescent Psychology
Abstract
Schools often struggle to meet the needs of students experiencing mental health outcomes, which can lead to exclusionary discipline practices (Chafouleas, 2021; Johnson et al., 2021; Peguero et al., 2016; Zhou et al., 2023). Although a substantial number of students face disproportionate removal from school due to externalized behaviors (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 2019), one aspect of exclusionary discipline, namely disciplinary alternative school education programs (DAEPs), has received limited attention in research (Bender et al., 2016; Pierce et al., 2021; Tajalli et al., 2014). It is critical to thoroughly assess DAEPs because there is concern that these practices may exacerbate mental health outcomes for racially and ethnically minoritized youth (Johnson et al., 2021; Panuccio et al., 2022; Scully et al., 2019).
This study employed a moderated mediation analysis involving 151 racially and ethnically marginalized youth enrolled in a DAEP to assess the association between trauma, that is, posttraumatic stress symptoms, resilience, school climate, and externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Participants' ages ranged from 11 to 17 years.
The sample consisted of 101 males and 51 females. Results revealed that posttraumatic stress symptoms had a significant association with both internalizing and externalizing behaviors, with resilience partially mediating these relationships. School climate did not significantly moderate the indirect effect of resilience, though the indirect effect was significant across all levels of school climate. These findings underscore the importance of resilience in mitigating adverse mental health outcomes and highlight the need for trauma-informed interventions within DAEPs.
Keywords: posttraumatic stress symptoms, resilience, school climate, exclusionary discipline, disciplinary alternative education programs, internalizing behaviors, externalizing behaviors, racially and ethnically marginalized youth, trauma-informed interventions
Committee Chair/Advisor
Temilola Salami
Committee Member
Joseph Pelletier
Committee Member
Bridget Tate
Publisher
Prairie View A&M University
Rights
© 2021 Prairie View A & M University
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Date of Digitization
10/21/2025
Contributing Institution
J. B . Coleman Library
City of Publication
Prairie View
MIME Type
Application/PDF
Recommended Citation
Johnson, T. (2025). Beyond Trauma: Understanding Resilience, Trauma, School Climate, Externalizing And, Internalizing Behaviors In Youth Expelled To Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.pvamu.edu/pvamu-theses/1623