Knowledge and roles in the school violence agenda: A national survey of school psychologists

Although school psychologists possess unique training in both psychology and education, they apparently do not play a primary role in the school violence agenda. The current study surveyed a nationwide sample of 500 school psychologists to determine their comprehension of school violence and related legal issues as well as their practice characteristics. Additionally, this research examined level of practitioner training, familiarity with federal guidelines, school violence prevalence today, and potential barriers that may hinder school psychologists from service provision. A 50% response rate was obtained with 210 interpretable surveys completed by school psychologists currently working in schools.; While the assessment role continues to dominate the field in general, most practitioners primarily assume a consultative role for school violence issues. They do receive referrals and provide services for violent incidents in the school; however, the principal rather than the school psychologist assumes the primary role. The school psychologists exhibited some awareness of intervention and prevention strategies; however, it remains unclear from which source(s) and from whom this information has been obtained. Many practitioners identified common predictive risk factors, but demonstrated limited comprehension of specific factual statements. Although reportedly familiar with NASP guidelines, few study participants revealed knowledge of federal documents published to address targeted school violence. Only 4.8% reported feeling well prepared to deal with school violence though most considered it to be a moderate problem in their schools and had experienced weapon and bomb threats within the past year. Nevertheless, the school psychologists universally indicated that they feel safe when working in the school building. The majority of respondents reported that their states do not mandate school violence training, yet the modal respondent had attended informational sessions or received information from his/her district. Demographics were not related to whether the school psychologists provide school violence services or receive information from their district about identifying risk factors. The following barriers to more active participation in the school violence agenda were cited: training, time, workload, and the fact that it was not viewed as their responsibility. Limitations and future research directions were identified.