School Psychologists' Familiarity with Dissociation in the Children They Serve: A National Survey
Date
2023
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Abstract
A growing awareness of the negative impact of childhood trauma and adversity on life outcomes has led many schools to seek out ways to become trauma-informed. School psychologists, given their expertise and scope of practice in schools, could be considered potential leaders in such a movement. Given a growing body of theoretical and empirical evidence that dissociation marks more complex forms of traumatic stress, a national survey was conducted to examine school psychologists’ familiarity with the phenomenon of dissociation in the children they serve. A small sample (N = 41) consistent with National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) membership data provided initial findings in this area of practice. Despite rating themselves as being generally familiar with terms related to significant trauma (PTSD, ACEs, complex trauma, developmental trauma, toxic stress, and dissociation), a simple majority (greater than 50%) of the school psychologists sampled self-reported that they were unfamiliar with dissociation in their students in terms of knowledge, awareness, and ability to identify during observation. More than 80% were not confident in assessing nor comfortable educating teachers and parents about dissociation in children. Furthermore, fewer than half of the school psychologists sampled would consider dissociative problems as accounting for symptoms overlapping with other childhood disorders. A majority of the sample received little to no training exposure to the topic of dissociation, both inside and outside of graduate school, implying a need for enhanced training regarding the reality and usefulness of recognizing dissociation and complex trauma in children. These results point to a potential gap in familiarity with conceptual terms and practical know-how related to helping children with trauma-related dissociation.
Description
Dissertation completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Psychology degree in School Psychology at Alfred University, Alfred, NY.
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Dissertation
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Keywords
Psychology, Educational psychology, School counseling