The Needs of Parents Following School Shooting Events: A Scoping Review

Background: School shootings are increasing in frequency and intensity. Since Columbine there have been more than 375 school shootings leading to the murder of 199 children and educators and more than 325,000 survivors exposed to the violence. The number of shootings has increased rapidly over the past six years, almost doubling from 2017; both 2021 and then 2022 saw the highest incidence of school shootings on record. Statistics on school shootings suggest that 1256 shootings have occurred over the past 10 years affecting children across school ages. The impact of school shootings on children include acute stress disorder, high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, increase in risk taking behavior, and lower lifetime earnings. Beyond children, parents and communities are also affected, and experience increased mental health symptoms and difficulty accessing resources. Both children and parents are at risk for re-traumatization due to intense media coverage. Helping children in the aftermath of school shootings requires parental support. But very little is known about the process through which parents heal from shooting events and are able to support their children’s healing. The purpose of this scoping review was to identify effects of shooting events on parents, factors that may assist them in helping their children heal, and current gaps in the research on parents’ experiences.

Methods: We retrieved literature published through January 2023, and utilized the following search terms: “school shooting” “school violence” “mass school shooting” secondary trauma” “PTSD” “mass murder” “trauma” “survivor” “social support” “resiliency” “family support” “caregiver” “parent” “recovery” “crisis intervention” “crisis response” and “emotional trauma”. We searched the following databases: Eric, Web of Science, PubMed and PsycInfo. To be included in this review, articles had to be written in English, examine the impact of school shootings on caregivers and parents, or examine interventions to support parents following a school shooting event. We then organized results based on three themes: 1. Psychosocial effects of school shootings on parents and caregivers; 2. Interventions for parents and caregivers following school shootings; and 3. Suggestions for interventions for caregivers and parents to assist them in supporting children following shooting events.

Results: We retained 12 articles for this review. Themes related to the impact of school shootings on caregivers included symptoms that are consistent with acute stress disorder and PTSD. The few interventions that exist for parents whose children experienced shootings included psychoeducation, family systems work, and family support services to help aid in their child’s recovery. Interventions that might be beneficial to assist parents to help their children include immediate victim navigation services, crisis services, psychoeducation on trauma and its effects on children and families, and the utilization of trauma specific clinical interventions such as Cognitive Processing Therapy.

Conclusion: Results highlight gaps in research and understanding of the needs of parents and caregivers following school shooting events. Future research should examine the impact of school shooting events on parent’s mental health, parent’s resource utilization and needs, barriers and facilitators to healing and the bidirectional relationship between parents’ symptomology and children’s recovery.