School Psychology Counseling Research Articles

An Investigation of Private School Psychological Counseling and Guidance Teachers’ Views on Immigrant Students

Migration continues to emerge as a significant issue in the present day, extending beyond its historical context. This phenomenon not only forms a broad spectrum of impact in social, economic, and cultural realms but also holds notable consequences in the realm of education. Migration, on one hand, has the potential to stimulate cultural interaction, enhancing diversity in knowledge and experience. On the other hand, immigrant individuals may encounter early challenges such as educational inequalities or negative attitudes. This intricate relationship between migration and education contributes to cultural development while simultaneously bringing about areas of societal conflict. Understanding the effects of migration on the younger generation falls within the responsibilities of Psychological Counseling and Guidance (PCG) teachers. These educators aim to support students’ academic, personal, social, and emotional development, particularly addressing the challenges posed by the education of immigrant students in the context of social diversity. Research on understanding the attitudes among school stakeholders towards immigrant students contributes valuable insights to this field. In this context, the study is an original work focusing on the perspectives of PCG teachers concerning the attitudes of other stakeholders in schools with immigrant students in private schools. Conducted using qualitative research methods and the phenomenology design, the study involved 12 PCG teachers working in private schools in Gaziantep, Kilis, and Mersin, which are among Turkey’s cities experiencing significant migration. Data collected through interviews were analyzed using content analysis. The findings revealed that, overall, teachers and students in private schools with immigrant students tended to have a positive attitude, while parents held a negative outlook. A collective evaluation of all data suggests a notably positive perception and attitude toward immigrant students.

Developing a School Counseling Competency Framework for Primary School Teachers

The school counseling competency framework is a tool to develop teachers doing the school psychology counseling work in primary schools, which is extremely necessary, especially when schools in Vietnam are currently not having the official title for that job. The article proposes a framework of school counseling competency for primary school teachers with 5 elements rated at levels 1,2,3 including: 1/ Teachers' cognitive competency of psychology counseling activities for primary school students. 2/ Ability to understand the physiological characteristics of primary school students and the difficulties of students in school life. 3/ Ability to develop school psychological counseling plans for primary school students. 4/ Ability to design, select, and implement school psychology counseling topics for primary school students. 5/ Ability to coordinate family and community in school psychological counseling for primary school students. The competency framework can be used to improve the quality of teachers working in school counseling in primary schools

“The world has collapsed, what am I going to do?” —A School Psychological Counseling Case Report of a Junior High School Student with Acute Stress Disorder

“The world has collapsed, what am I going to do?” —A School Psychological Counseling Case Report of a Junior High School Student with Acute Stress Disorder

THE IMPORTANCE OF SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELORS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR VIETNAMESE SCHOOLS Article-ID - 4649

Vietnam's education system lacks well-established school psychological counseling services, despite the crucial role they play. As the country grapples with increasing mental health issues and intense academic pressure among its youth, there is an urgent need to expand counseling programs. This article explores the advantages of comprehensive school counseling initiatives led by licensed mental health professionals. Extensive global evidence indicates that effective integration of counselors enhances mental well-being, academic performance, graduation rates, and overall development. Unfortunately, Vietnam currently only has one counselor available for every 35,000 students, leaving a significant portion of the youth without access to psychological support. Vietnam is advised to take certain actions to strengthen its counselor workforce, incorporate counseling services into schools' objectives, and establish a multitiered approach. These recommendations include the recruitment of more counselors, the implementation of licensing requirements, a focus on secondary schools initially, the delivery of targeted prevention and intervention services, close collaboration with educators, and the collection of program evaluation data. By making a concerted effort, Vietnam can fully harness the potential of school counselors to promote the well-being and success of the next generation. While expanding counseling services may require investment, the long-term benefits for youth development far outweigh the costs. The time has come for Vietnam to prioritize and expand this crucial aspect of education.

EXAMINATION OF PEER PRESSURE IN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS BASED ON TEACHERS' OPINIONS

This study examines peer bullying behaviors among high school students between the ages of 15 and 18 based on teachers' opinions. The sample group consisted of a total of 30 teachers, 22 of whom were female and 8 of whom were male. All these teachers worked in high schools and equivalent schools in Istanbul. A total of 23 of the participants hold undergraduate degrees, and 7 of them hold postgraduate degrees. The participants were selected from different branches. The data were collected using the face-to-face interview technique. Teachers were asked 11 types of questions about peer pressure, and their responses were noted. The data were collected from volunteer teachers who were still on duty. The 'Peer Bullying Questionnaire in Schools', developed by the researchers and determined according to expert opinions and consisting of two parts, was used as a data collection tool. The first part of the peer bullying questionnaire includes the demographic characteristics of the participants, and the second part includes 11 types of questions for teachers about peer pressure. Consequently, this research is a study that reflects the peer bullying cases that students have been exposed to, how students react to such bullying, what kind of attitude teachers have towards such behaviors, how they act as teachers, why bullying behaviors develop, and how they suggest solutions to such behaviors. The results of the present study showed that peer bullying is a highly prevalent problem in high schools, and the students mostly suffered from verbal and social bullying. Familial factors were reported as the major cause of peer bullying. Teachers stated that the first source they used to cope with bullying was the school's psychological counseling and guidance services. The results of the present study were discussed based on the available literature, the study's limitations were indicated, and suggestions for future practical and theoretical studies were presented.

Examination of children’s grief experiences through storytelling-based systemic intervention: Case study

This study explored the experiences of children whose parents died and who were in the mourning process through storytelling-based systemic intervention. The study employed the multiple case study design and the study group consisted of six children aged 7–12 years attending elementary and middle schools in Van, Turkey. The criterion sampling method was used to form the study group. The criteria for participating in the study were the child being between the ages of 7–12, the child losing one of the parents, the child having psychological support request from the school psychological counseling service for him/her, and the child losing his/her mother or father at least six months before the study. The semi-structured interview method was used to collect data in the study since storytelling-based systemic intervention developed for this study includes distinct stages, questions to be directed to the counselee at each stage, and steps that can be flexible according to the counselee’s situation. 11 interviews were held with each child regularly every week. These interviews aimed to understand what the children experience regarding grief through the “storytelling-based systemic intervention”. The study data were analyzed by deductive content analysis and qualitative comparative analysis. What the children experienced during the intervention was presented based on the therapeutic unique experiences of White and Epston (1990), who emphasized narrative therapy and social constructs. Under the general category of “emotional constructions regarding the past unique outcomes”, various subcategories were formed, namely “emotional oscillations between life/death”, “experiencing many emotions together during the grief process”, “the revealing of injuries associated with losses and the responsive change of hurt”, “feeling sensitivity towards the surviving parent”, “feeling hurt by others about parental loss”, “feeling empathetic towards people experiencing similar grief narratives” and “revealing unfinished emotions with the dead”.

A Survey of Teachers' Status in Mental Health Education Management Based on Big Data Analysis.

This paper uses the theory of mental health education to conduct an in-depth study and analysis of teachers' educational management, and based on this, it designs a survey method on teachers' status and analyzes its strategic methods based on the results of the survey. Using literature analysis, questionnaires, survey interviews, and statistical analysis, the analysis of mental health of primary and secondary school teachers in the city was made. The results of the survey and analysis of the questionnaire results were used to construct a compatible mental health evaluation model. It was found that the overall level of elementary school teachers' mental health is poor at present, and different levels of mental health were presented with school sections and ages. A total of 286 questionnaires were distributed, 278 valid questionnaires were returned, and statistical analysis was conducted using EXCEL tables based on the collected data. The data analysis results show that the mental health level of teachers in middle school is significantly lower than that of teachers in primary school, and the mental health level of teachers in primary and secondary schools decreases with the increase of age. Therefore, to prevent the small and the gradual, start from the source; do a good job in the publicity of mental health education in peacetime; popularize the knowledge of mental health, so that teachers have a correct understanding of mental health education; improve the professional level of teachers; set up professional teachers in professional positions; establish sound job system and evaluation system, etc. Promote the balanced development of school psychological counseling rooms, strengthen the construction of professional teachers in mental health education, improve various systems of mental health education, comprehensively popularize teachers' mental health education and training, and mobilize teachers' enthusiasm for scientific research on mental health education. Improve the understanding of mental health education in colleges and universities, and regard mental health education as the foundation of all education.

Adjustment Method of College Students' Mental Health Based on Data Analysis Under the Background of Positive Psychology.

Colleges and universities are in an important position to train builders and successors of the socialist cause whilst promoting quality education. Mental health education is an important foundation and condition for comprehensively improving students' overall quality. This research explores adjustment methods for college students' mental health based on virtual reality under the background of positive psychology. It discusses the importance of system requirements analysis in the software development process, analyzes the system's functional requirements, safety requirements, and software and hardware requirements, and uses the Apriori algorithm to explore the influencing factors of college students' mental health. Based on the system engineering method and using the data mining clustering method undertake detailed analysis and research on the mental health of college students, it then designs an anomaly mining algorithm based on clustering to quickly find anomalous data health problems. The interface design of the system is concise and the operation is simple. Users can conveniently input, query, and count information according to the various controls on the interface, which fully embodies human-oriented characteristics. Exploration of the characteristics of students' frequent Internet access ensures the efficiency, accuracy, and comprehensiveness of the evaluation and consultation work, facilitating psychological counseling for teachers and students, and saving paper. By establishing a data mining model, mining the database, and learning about different student groups and their respective characteristics, we discuss our research on student psychology and summarize the mental health status and gender, adaptation and anxiety, introversion, emotionality, and calmness of college students. We also consider the relationship between sex, negative, and courage. Using positive psychology theory, we examine the positive experiences of students and interconnected qualities, to build a mental health practice system. In the experiment, the happiness index evaluation of the virtual reality treatment system group was significant, P = 0.002 < 0.05. Mental health education plays an important role in cultivating the healthy psychology of college students, developing their psychological potential, enhancing their adaptability, and improving their personality. This analysis based on actual data provides a reliable basis for psychological educators to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of school psychological counseling and to facilitate schools in establishing new methods of early prevention and intervention for psychological disorders, enabling institutions to create a healthy atmosphere for college students.

Psychological Counseling during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Clinical Thoughts and Implications Arisen from an Experience in Italian Schools.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I worked as a psychologist in two schools: a comprehensive school (an institution including three school levels: kindergarten, primary school, and secondary school of first grade) and a Provincial Center for the Education of Adults (CPIA). This paper provides some clinical considerations that arose from this personal experience, focusing on practical implications for school psychological counseling. Among the main points, I noticed that students were eager to disclose information about themselves in a professional space, were not afraid of being ridiculed by classmates for attending the service, and spontaneously used artistic media. Using English (a non-native language for both the Italian psychologist and the CPIA student) emerged as an added value for immigrant students who were not fluent in Italian. This allowed them to attend the psychology service and share their thoughts and feelings despite their difficulties with Italian. In conclusion, psychological counseling services should be implemented in all schools and across all school levels worldwide to favor psychological well-being and spread a culture prone to asking for psychological help. Moreover, using a non-native language might be helpful when working with international students. Finally, sandplay therapy (and art) might be an additional option to verbal counseling in school settings.

Effect of Emotional Distress Monitoring and Intervention in Preventing Non-suicidal Self-injury (NSSI) of College Students

Objective: In this study, we monitored and intervened in the emotional status of college students to understand the effect of intervention measures on the prevention and control of non-suicidal self-harm, and to provide a reference for the prevention and control of self-harm in college students. Methods: We conducted a baseline survey of 1832 first-year students across 3 vocational colleges in Chongqing, China in October 2019. In October 2020, we followed-up regarding the nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) occurrences among our original respondents. During the year, students’ emotions were regularly monitored. The students who scored &gt; 10 and had moderate suicidal thoughts were provided counseling to reduce their emotional stress. If the students could not reduce these emotions, their counselors contacted the school psychological center for professional counseling. If the school psychological counseling center diagnosed the students with severe depression, the counselors informed their parents and suggested hospital treatment. Results: The detection rate of NSSI history was 18.52% (320/1728), and the detection rate of the follow-up survey was 8.13% (137/1685); the difference in the detection rate was statistically significant (χ2 = 128.3103, p &lt; .001). Conclusions: Our results show that monitoring and intervening in college students’ emotional states can prevent the occurrence of NSSI behavior.

Rehberlik ve Araştırma Merkezi Rehberlik Hizmetleri Bölümünün İşlevselliğinin İncelenmesi: Bir Karma Yöntem Araştırması

Guidance and Research Center (GRC), which has a history of 70 years, has an important position in School Psychological Counseling and Guidance services. The number of GRCs was 240 in the 2018-2019 academic year. GRCs provide services in two main sections (Guidance Services Section and Special Education Services Section). This research aims to investigate the functionality of the GRC Guidance services department according to the perceptions of the guide teachers working in the GRCs. The research was conducted in a mixed model. A questionnaire was applied to 231 counselors from 240 GRCs and 27 counselors were interviewed. GRC Guidance Services Department Assesment Questionnaire and semi-structured interview form were used as data collection tools. Frequency and percentages of the data were presented, and thematic analysis was conducted on the data. The results show that according to the guidance teachers working in the GRC the GRCs fall short in meeting the needs of the regions. In addition, the authorities perceive GRCs as special education rehabilitation centers. It was seen that the GRC Guidance services department suffers from a lack of staff but despite this, seven of the 12 job descriptions provided by the Ministry of National Education are fulfilled. Finally, in-service trainings, improvement of personal rights, increasing the number of personnel in terms of quantity and quality, and revising the mission statement of the GRC Guidance services departments are highly recommended.

Culturally Responsive School Psychology Practice: a Study of Practitioners’ Self-Reported Skills

The American Psychological Association (APA) recognizes cultural competence as a defining feature of psychological practice, education, training, and research (Sue et al. American Psychologist, 49, 792–796, 1999). The purpose of this study was to investigate the self-appraised cultural competence of school psychology practitioners using the Multicultural School Psychology Counseling Competency Scale (MSPCCS; Rogers & Ponterotto Psychology in the Schools, 34(3), 211–217, 1997) as well as to investigate the convergent validity of the scale with the Cross-Cultural Counseling Inventory-Revised (CCCI-R; LaFromboise et al. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 22(5), 380–388, 1991). Social desirability was also investigated to determine if there was a statistically significant correlation with self-report ratings of multicultural competence. A total of 161 participants were part of the sample that was recruited from 11 state professional school psychology associations across the USA. The results revealed that the MSPCCS demonstrates convergent validity with the CCCI-R and that on average school psychology practitioners report moderately high levels of multicultural competence. There was not a statistically significant positive correlation between total scores and social desirability, suggesting respondents gave fair estimates of their self-reported multicultural competence. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Evaluation and Promotion Countermeasures of College Counselors' Psychological Guidance Ability based on Online Survey

As one of the main abilities of College Counselors' work, psychological counseling can directly influence the work attitude, job burnout and job stress of college counselors. After the 1980s, many colleges began to carry out the work of school psychological counseling, which includes not only individual counseling but also mental health education. In this paper, we analyze psychological guidance the ability of college counselors by using online survey, the result shows that the ability of the counselors’ psychological guidance plays an important role in the overall quality of college students. Also, Observation and diagnosis ability is an important ability for counselors; counselors can understand the needs of the students' psychological counseling, and then carry out the corresponding counseling activities. Overall, the ability of College Counselors' psychological counseling increased with the increase of working age. On this basis, we put forward relevant suggestions.

School Counselors’ Assessment of the Psychological Counseling and Guidance Services they Offer at their Schools

The study aims to obtain an academic, vocational, personal, and social assessment of school counselors of the psychological counseling and guidance (PCG) services they offer at their schools. It also evaluates the suggestions of the school counselors as to the conditions required to make the PCG practices in their schools more adequate. The research involves dominant status concurrent design within in-phase mixed design as a mixed research design category. The sample group consists of 49 school counselors serving at elementary and secondary levels in Istanbul. “School Psychological Counseling and Guidance Services Assessment Form” and “Personal Information Form” were used to collect data. The collected data were subjected to quantitative and qualitative analyses. Frequency (f) and percentage (%) calculations were performed for quantitative analysis. Furthermore, bivariate chi-square (X2) test was performed using the crosstabs technique. Descriptive analysis was made for qualitative analysis. The research results showed that the school counselors offer personal PCG services at a greater level and academic and vocational PCG services at similar levels. Of the school counselors stating that they offer an adequate level of PCG services, 75% are employed at secondary level while 44% work at elementary level. Of the school counselors stating that they offer an adequate level of PCG services, 69.7% are female and 37.5% are male

Development of the Multicultural School Psychology Counseling Competency Scale

The purpose of this study was to begin to delineate competencies needed by school psychologists in the provision of counseling services to culturally diverse clients and to develop an exploratory measure of multicultural counseling competence in school psychology practice. The present article discusses the development and preliminary psychometric characteristics of the Multicultural School Psychology Counseling Competency Scale (MSPCCS). The MSPCCS, which assesses trainers' perceptions of the multicultural school psychology counseling competencies of graduating trainees, was administered to a national sample of directors of school psychology training programs. Preliminary findings, based on a 57% return rate, suggest that the scale has good internal consistency reliability. Results of the factor analysis support a one factor solution for the scale. Specific considerations in the use of the scale are discussed, and suggestions for future research are presented. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Development of the Multicultural School Psychology Counseling Competency Scale

Development of the Multicultural School Psychology Counseling Competency Scale