An investigation of change: elementary students with an individual education program participating in a school‐based mental health counselling intervention

Abstract

There is a high prevalence of mental health concerns among youth in the United States. School‐based mental health counselling interventions maybe one way of addressing the mental health concerns of youth. This study investigated changes in students’ behavioural and emotional problems scores and discipline referrals for those who participated in a 5‐week school‐based mental health counselling intervention (SBMHCI) at three Title I elementary schools, located in Southeastern United States. The participants (N = 35) to participate had an active Individual Education Program (IEP). They then received the SBMHCI grounded in a Humanistic counselling approach. A single‐group, pre‐test‐post‐test design was used to examine change in participants’ scores (internalizing and externalizing). There was no control group in place for this study therefore there was no comparisons made between participants and non‐participants’ outcomes. The researchers identified significant improvement over time on the parents’ ratings of the students’ internalizing problem scores and the teachers’ ratings of the students’ externalizing problem scores, and total problems scores per both parents and teachers’ report. Furthermore, the number of office discipline referrals decreased significantly over time.