Abstract:
This study examined the role and involvement of school psychologists across the nation in school violence prevention. One hundred and seventy-four participants were recruited through the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) email listserv and through direct emailing from the Nationally Certified School Psychologist (NCSP) database. Results indicate that school psychologists are not leaders in violence prevention in their schools and typically do not facilitate school violence prevention. School psychologists are involved as counselors, members of school violence prevention teams and in consultation with school staff. The longer a school psychologist has been in the field and factors hypothesized as related to involvement (e.g., positive attitude towards school violence prevention) did have a significant relation with school psychologist level of involvement. An interesting finding of this study was that respondents reported that they did not feel prepared by their graduate programs to be involved in school violence prevention. However, when asked about specific tasks related to school violence prevention, the majority of respondents noted a wide breadth of specific skill competence. Findings suggest that school psychologists are not as involved as prevalent thinking would suggest and there are significant implications for current practitioners and training programs.
Description:
Dissertation completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Psychology degree in School Psychology at Alfred University, Alfred, NY.
