Impact of an attachment- and trauma-informed training intervention for social care professionals

Green, Corinne, Gregory, James, Donnelly, Katherine and Hoshi, Rosa ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3367-2327 2026. Impact of an attachment- and trauma-informed training intervention for social care professionals. Developmental Child Welfare 10.1177/25161032261416209

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Abstract

The importance of trauma-informed care has recently been recognised more greatly across the United Kingdom and has led to increased efforts to provide training to staff across a range of public sectors. Evaluation of training interventions is often limited to outcomes of staff knowledge and confidence. The current study aimed to evaluate the impact of an attachment- and trauma-informed training intervention for social work professionals on how they understand the young people they work with. 29 social work professionals attended training online and face-to-face. A pre-post design was utilised, with intervention and waiting-for-training groups, evaluating outcomes of professionals’ expressed emotion (EE), reflective functioning (RF), and attachment-informed stance using 5 Minute Speech Samples (FMSS), alongside attitudes towards trauma-informed care (ARTIC) and knowledge, confidence and worries regarding trauma-informed care. A novel Attachment-Informed FMSS coding system was developed and piloted showing good inter-rater and code-recode reliability. Significant interaction effects were found for knowledge (ηp2 = .623, p = <.001), confidence (ηp2 = .281, p = .003) and EE Warmth (ηp2 = .172, p = .025), significant increases were seen pre-to post-intervention for training group compared to waiting-for-training group, and training group had a significant increase in ARTIC scores pre-to post-intervention (r = .412, p = .02). Significant effects of time were found for RF and attachment-informed stance but no interaction effect was found. Training outcomes may not have the intended effect of increasing professionals’ ability to be reflective or attachment-informed but still provide positive changes in knowledge, confidence and self-reported attitudes.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Schools > Psychology
ISSN:	2516-1032
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	6 January 2026
Date of Acceptance:	19 November 2025
Last Modified:	08 Jan 2026 14:53
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/183619

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