Research Article Summary Sample

Article: Straussner, S. L. A., & Calnan, A. J. (2014). Trauma through the life cycle: a review of current literature. Clinical Social Work Journal, 42(4), 323-335.

Analytical Summary

Straussner & Calnan (2014) discussed large trauma and small trauma among different age groups, genders, generations and cultures and the concept of resilience. The purpose of this research article is to overview the different degrees and types of effects that traumatic events have on individuals at different life stages in order to help clinicians and practitioners in identifying appropriate treatment approaches in time and avoid any harm to the traumatic persons. The research also focuses on the concept of resilience. The research is significant in the sense that traumatic men and women, children, adolescents, adults and immigrants have different reactions and experience different types of impact of traumatic events and therefore require different treatments. This research will fill this gap in knowledge and provide an opportunity to practitioners and clinicians in effective selection of treatment approaches according to the different requirements. Research shows that more than 50 percent of US men and women suffer from trauma during their lifetime. Since trauma can occur at any stage and to any gender type, with different treatment requirements, therefore the researchers tried to study the different types of trauma among men, women, children, and adults to find these different treatment implications and ways to promote resilience among them.

Part II

The authors’ define large trauma as natural disaster and human caused disasters, which destroy individual people, families, and communities. In one way, the authors limit this key concept is to introduce complex trauma, which “involve events of prolonged duration or multiple traumatic events.”  The authors add examples (key terms) like “On going interpersonal violence”, “child physical or sexual abuse spanning several years”, “never-ending wars”, or “constant acts of terrorism” to explain the concept of complex trauma. These key terms add more meaning to the key concept of large trauma in general and to complex trauma specifically.