Hearing about students鈥� trauma takes a serious toll on teachers, a new UNC study finds

In The NoCo

Hearing about students鈥� trauma takes a serious toll on teachers, a new UNC study finds

By In The NoCo,

Erin O'Toole, Brad Turner, Ariel Lavery

Published February 18, 2025 at 5:35 AM MST

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Courtesy of Breanna King

Breanna King, a doctoral student at the University of Northern Colorado, measured levels of secondary traumatic stress among classroom educators 鈥� and found the prevalence alarmingly high. "I didn't expect the percentage to be as high as it was," King says. "It kind of led me to thinking more into why it might be so high in educators."

Ask a teacher about the hardest part of their job, and you might expect them to cite .

But there鈥檚 another, less visible challenge that educators face: exposure to student trauma. Students may confide in a teacher about not having enough to eat at home, or an abusive family member. And exposure to those problems takes a serious toll on teachers.

According to a , about 9 in 10 teachers and other classroom educators deal with what鈥檚 called secondary traumatic stress from helping students with their problems, or simply hearing about them. And of those teachers, 42 percent had secondary traumatic stress that was considered severe.

Breanna King, a graduate student in UNC鈥檚 School Psychology program, designed and led the study. She spoke with Erin O鈥橳oole about how high levels of secondary traumatic stress may contribute to teachers leaving the field 鈥� and she shared ideas about how to help teachers cope.

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In The NoCo Education Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)Teacher shortage University of Northern Colorado (UNC)

In The NoCo

KUNC's In The NoCo is a daily slice of stories, news, people and issues. It's a window to the communities along the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The show brings context and insight to the stories of the day, often elevating unheard voices in the process. And because life in Northern Colorado is a balance of work and play, we celebrate the lighter side of things here, too.

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Erin O'Toole

As the host of KUNC鈥檚 new program and podcast In the NoCo, I work closely with our producers and reporters to bring context and diverse perspectives to the important issues of the day. Northern Colorado is such a diverse and growing region, brimming with history, culture, music, education, civic engagement, and amazing outdoor recreation. I love finding the stories and voices that reflect what makes NoCo such an extraordinary place to live.

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Brad Turner

Brad Turner is an executive producer in KUNC's newsroom. He manages the podcast team that makes In The NoCo, which also airs weekdays in Morning Edition and All Things Considered. His work as a podcaster and journalist has appeared on NPR's Weekend Edition, NPR Music, the PBS 暗黑爆料hour, Colorado Public Radio, MTV Online, the Denver Post, Boulder's Daily Camera, and the Longmont Times-Call.

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Ariel Lavery

Ariel Lavery grew up in Louisville, Colorado and has returned to the Front Range after spending over 25 years moving around the country. She co-created the podcast Middle of Everywhere for WKMS, Murray State University鈥檚 NPR member station, and won Public Media Journalism awards in every season she produced for Middle of Everywhere. Her most recent series project is "The Burn Scar", published with The Modern West podcast. In it, she chronicles two years of her family鈥檚 financial and emotional struggle following the loss of her childhood home in the Marshall Fire.

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