| Suicide is the third leading cause of death among youth aged 15 to 24 in the United States (CDC, 2005). Because of the large percentage of time children spend in schools each day, this setting is an ideal place to provide suicide prevention programming. Among other school-based mental health providers, school psychologists may be called upon to implement these programs in the schools. At this time, however, there is limited information regarding the role, function, and level of involvement of school psychologists in school-based suicide prevention programs. In addition, there is a dearth of research on the specific types of suicide prevention programs that are currently used in the schools.;This study utilized a survey questionnaire developed by the principal researcher to address the limitations in the literature. Five hundred school psychologist practitioners belonging to the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) were randomly selected as participants for the study. A response rate of nearly 54% was calculated based on receipt of 269 returned surveys. Responses of 258 surveys were used for analysis, which was conducted using descriptive statistics and frequencies, chi-square measures, and one-way between groups analysis of variance.;Overall, results indicated that the majority of school psychologists in this sample are not involved in suicide prevention and the majority of respondents indicated that the schools in which they are employed do not implement suicide prevention programs. In addition, while school psychologists in the study reported receipt training in suicide prevention from approximately two sources (i.e., graduate coursework, conferences, in-service, etc.), the majority of respondents indicated that they perceive themselves to be only "somewhat well prepared" in suicide prevention. The results of the study also indicated some barriers to implementing these programs in the schools, including lack of time, money, resources, training, or support, and the belief that suicide is either not a problem or talking about it will encourage suicidal behavior in students. These results have implications for schools and the field of school psychology. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed. |
