A psychologist among the school desks

The Covid-19 health emergency has helped in Italy to accelerate reflection on the importance of psychologists at school. it is essential to try to understand their role, tasks and areas of intervention, in order to promote their professional characterization as a figure who works within the educational contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

School psychologist: School as an interweaving of relationship

The Coronavirus with the measures adopted by the government, have brought school psychology and the role of the psychologist in the school to the fore. The school psychologist must promote well-being in school. In pursuing this goal, attention to school relations is central. The school psychologist works for the promotion of well-being, but he must also be able to intercept and give an initial response to the discomfort. He is a figure rooted in the school with specific personal and professional skills. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Competencies and intervention areas of the school psychologist. Invitation to a discussion

Due also to the effects of Coronavirus, there was an increase of psychological requests and interventions within Italian schools, and the government adopted specific measures. However, the entity of the presence of the school psychologist and the types of competencies and interventions vary substantially between schools. There is therefore a need of clarification on what Italian school psychologists have done and may do. The present paper, based on an analysis of the international and national situations, opens a discussion on the competences and role of psychologists in the Italian schools. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Psychological Service for Ukrainian School Students during the Russian Invasion: Experience of School Psychologists from Kryvyi Rih

Introduction: After eight years of the war in the East of Ukraine, two years of the COVID-19 pandemic with relevant lockdowns, and two months of bomb alerts, school students and school psychologists from Kryvyi Rih have been dealing with new brutal military actions during the Russian invasion of Ukraine since the 24th February 2022. Purpose: This paper focuses on School Psychological Services' changes and challenges caused by the Russian invasion. It assesses war-related psychological effects on school students and school psychologists from Kryvyi Rih. Method: Brief non-structured interviews and the survey. Results and Conclusions: After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, School Psychological Services in Kryvyi Rih continued their work remotely, often combining it with in-person meetings (48.5%) and other volunteer activities (27.9%). The surveyed school psychologists (n=48) informed they conducted more individual consultations and psychoeducation and fewer diagnostics than usual to address school students' changing needs in response to wartime. School psychologists felt more effective and involved with students when they believed they got enough support from colleagues and supervisors, learned crisis interventions, received clear guidance, and did not feel burnout. They appreciated current governmental guidance and felt their post-traumatic growth more when they were safe. After 1.5 months of the war, 43.8% of psychologists experienced burnout. At least a quarter needed additional education, psychological support, easily accessible supervision (especially short and rapid), and guidance for specific cases. © 2023 Lifescience Global.

Psychological state and its correlates of local college students in Wuhan during COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020, the lockdown of Wuhan due to the outbreak of COVID-19 impacted various aspects of local college students' life and may further negatively affect their psychological state. This study was conducted among 652 Wuhan local college students during the quarantine of this city. We assessed their psychological state using Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale 21 and evaluated their living condition including diet, schedule, recreational activities, social contact, academic life, and attention paid to pandemic news. Results showed that 16.87% of the students reported stress, 28.68% with anxiety, and 35.12% had depression. According to multivariate logistic regression analysis, having a medical background was associated with higher stress levels; students who had an irregular diet and schedule were more likely to develop stress, anxiety, and depression; students with their academic life affected had a higher prevalence of anxiety and depression. By studying local students in the hardest-hit area during the pandemic, our findings can provide references for the improvement of college students' mental health in the long term.

Training and utility of mindfulness among school psychologists

The role of school psychologists (SPs) includes consulting with parents, teachers, and working directly with students. Researchers have demonstrated a high rate of burnout among professionals in this field (e.g., Huebner, 1992;Schilling et al., 2018). Mindfulness-based interventions have been found to be useful to address symptoms of burnout among other professionals (e.g., physicians: Luken & Sammons, 2016). Mindfulness has also been theorized as particularly useful for the myriad roles that school psychologists work within (Alahari, 2017). Although research into the utility of mindfulness have found positive effects for students within the schools (e.g., Felver et al., 2016), no research has addressed the utility of mindfulness among school psychologists. The present study recruited practicing SPs to complete a series of surveys designed to collect the level of training and use of mindfulness, trait mindfulness, and burnout. SPs reported relatively high levels of training and familiarity with the concept, primarily through professional development. Results showed that use of mindfulness was positively related to overall familiarity. Level of burnout was also shown to be negatively related to use of mindfulness. Finally, trait mindfulness was negatively related to symptoms of burnout among practicing SPs. Qualitative themes included factors related to burnout (e.g., leadership, COVID-19), the benefit of mindfulness and other strategies to address burnout, how mindfulness can improve therapeutic relationships, and buy-in as a prevalent barrier for mindfulness in the schools. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Emerging challenges of initial education in School Psychology during the pandemic

This paper aims to discuss initial education in School Psychology in Brazil in the framework of the pandemic, addressing the challenges in emergency remote teaching. Therefore, considerations were made about the initial training of the school psychologists, their relationship with the performance of emergency remote teaching. in universities and, finally, the difficulties existing in the current reality. The training challenge during the pandemic refers to the change in the way activities are carried out and theoretical and practical teaching subjects that use digital technologies;in addition to difficulties associated with social conditions, health or access to equipment and the internet, which have implications for the training of undergraduates across the country. The importance of a careful look at the training of a professional who has experienced a different training process in relation to academic experiences and the development of professional skills is discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Ethics and law for school psychologists., 8th ed

Ethics and Law for School Psychologists was written to provide up-to-date information on ethical principles and standards and law pertinent to the delivery of school psychological services. The goal of this book is to bring together various ethical and legal guidelines pertinent to the delivery of school psychological services. The book focuses on ethical-legal issues of interest to current and future school-based practitioners. There have been a number of changes in ethical guidelines and law since the seventh edition. The National Association of School Psychologists revised its professional standards, including the Principles for Professional Ethics, in 2020, and the American Psychological Association revised its ethics code, Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, in 2016. The eighth edition gives new attention to the ethical obligation to promote social justice. The problem-solving model is replaced by the DECIDE ethical-legal decision-making model developed by Diamond et al. (2021) that emphasizes socially just practice. Overall, the book has been updated to stress consideration of racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and other background factors important to understanding the context and/or the individuals involved in ethically challenging situations, and practitioners are now more explicitly urged to examine their own biases and how those biases might affect their perception of a situation and professional judgment. Chapter 8 now includes information about working with students who have undocumented family members and the educational rights of homeless schoolchildren. Chapter 12 (new) provides an expanded focus on advocacy. The Covid-19 pandemic along with the nationwide shortage of school psychologists have led to increased interest in distance assessment and intervention. As a result, multiple sections of the book are further updated to address ethical and legal concerns associated with distance delivery of school psychological services, including sections on distance assessment (Chapter 6), teleconsultation (Chapter 8), and telesupervision (Chapter 11). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Resilience to COVID-19 challenges: Lessons for school psychologists serving school-attending black South African youth aged 10 to 19 years old

Several studies have highlighted the mental health challenges of children and youth during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown period, especially, in relation to an escalation of depression, anxiety, and stress. Whilst this may be the reality, it is unfortunate that most of the studies adopt a psychopathological point of departure often portraying doom and gloom. Adopting a social ecological resilience perspective the author focuses on the resilience of school-attending black South African youth during the COVID-19 lockdown period. The Child and Youth Resilience Measurement (CYRM-28) was completed by 4165 respondents in grades 4 to 12 (females = 2431, 58.4%;males = 1734, 41.6%) from the Gauteng, Mpumalanga and North-West provinces in South Africa. The findings indicate that school psychologists must consider gender, age and school levels when they design school-based resilience programmes for black South African children. Particular emphasis should be placed on contextual resilience highlighting spiritual, religious, cultural and educational factors. A major lesson for school psychologists is to ensure that school-based resiliency programmes adopt a whole school approach that includes children, their families and local communities for the successful promotion of resilience during adverse situations as postulated by the social ecological resilience model. [ FROM AUTHOR]

Training and utility of mindfulness among school psychologists

The role of school psychologists (SPs) includes consulting with parents, teachers, and working directly with students. Researchers have demonstrated a high rate of burnout among professionals in this field (e.g., Huebner, 1992;Schilling et al., 2018). Mindfulness-based interventions have been found to be useful to address symptoms of burnout among other professionals (e.g., physicians: Luken & Sammons, 2016). Mindfulness has also been theorized as particularly useful for the myriad roles that school psychologists work within (Alahari, 2017). Although research into the utility of mindfulness have found positive effects for students within the schools (e.g., Felver et al., 2016), no research has addressed the utility of mindfulness among school psychologists. The present study recruited practicing SPs to complete a series of surveys designed to collect the level of training and use of mindfulness, trait mindfulness, and burnout. SPs reported relatively high levels of training and familiarity with the concept, primarily through professional development. Results showed that use of mindfulness was positively related to overall familiarity. Level of burnout was also shown to be negatively related to use of mindfulness. Finally, trait mindfulness was negatively related to symptoms of burnout among practicing SPs. Qualitative themes included factors related to burnout (e.g., leadership, COVID-19), the benefit of mindfulness and other strategies to address burnout, how mindfulness can improve therapeutic relationships, and buy-in as a prevalent barrier for mindfulness in the schools. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Imagining, creating, building together: School psychologist practices in times of pandemic

This article is intended to spur reflections on school psychologist's remote practices and its impacts on the strengthening of collectives in the commitment for the transformation of educational frameworks during the pandemic period caused by the new coronavirus (COVID-19). The propositions of Lev Vygotsky and other scholars from the Cultural-Historical Theory set the theoretical-methodological grounds for the discussions and analysis presented. The data derived from two online interventions-one in Basic Education and another in Higher Educatio-developed by the authors of this paper during the period of social isolation caused by the pandemic. In both contexts, and as the guiding axis of our discussions, art was used as a mediating tool, a cultural instrument that through aesthetic experience promotes the creation of new meanings and senses of oneself, of others and the world. The importance of the school psychologist to recognize him/herself as a professional whose main role is to invest in the construction, maintenance, and transformation of the bonds established among the different actors inserted in educational contexts was emphasized. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Responding to individuals and communities after disasters and other traumatic events: An introduction

Public service psychologists are often at the forefront of responding to communities affected by disasters, violence, and other traumatic events. Through prevention efforts, risk management and treatment response interventions practiced in prisons, military installations, law enforcement, Veterans Affairs (VA) centers, state hospitals, and schools, public service psychologists offer care to those impacted. This introduction provides an overview of articles culled from a call for papers focusing on theoretical and empirical explorations of organized responses to traumatic events. The thirteen papers presented here are organized into two sections of articles illustrating two broad groupings of response-those that are immediate and those produced through a lengthier evaluation process. Public sector psychologists are an innovative and nimble workforce who can immediately meet urgent service delivery needs. They are also well equipped to perform the lengthier research and evaluation tasks that can be used to benefit service delivery responses during future events. From across these two groupings, an array of papers are presented, from psychological and mental health first aid to other innovative programs that offer an organized response to individuals and communities after traumatic events, including the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The range of interventions offered by public service psychologists to individuals and communities in an increasing number of traumatic events suggests that the field is pacing itself to meet this growing need. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) Impact Statement Impact Statement-Organized responses to deliver psychological services during disasters and other traumatic events is a central aspect of public sector psychology. The 13 papers presented here illustrate a range of prevention and intervention efforts and illustrate the work of public sector psychologists with those impacted. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Understanding the biological basis of behavior: Developing evidence-based interventions for clinical, counseling and school psychologists

This book is an introduction to the biological basis of behavior, broadly defined, with practical applications for higher education programs that focus on advances in neuroscience. It has a special focus on training practitioners based on American Psychological Association (APA) health service psychology guidelines. It reviews and digests information for clinical, counseling, and school psychologists serving clients of all ages in a variety of settings, such as schools, hospitals, and clinics. Content for all developmental stages, including birth to geriatric practices are highlighted. This book will help health service psychologists and counselors to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population by providing cutting-edge, evidence-based, ecologically valid neuropsychological interventions currently lacking within the field. Cultural considerations are provided within each chapter, which is especially important given societal inequity that continues to persist within our world. Implications for the COVID-19 pandemic are also discussed in light of neuroscientific advances in medicine. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Bullying at Work and Its Impact on Job Satisfaction: An Exploration of School Psychologists

Given the persistent national shortage of school psychologists, as well as their job retention concerns, likely related to burnout, it is necessary to examine any factors that negatively impact school psychologists' job satisfaction. In this sample of 94 Pennsylvania school psychologists, the experience of being bullied at work was associated with diminished job satisfaction. Specifically, the independent variables of being bullying at work predicted 18.2% of the variance in job satisfaction in this sample, with verbal and indirect bullying the only types of bullying that contributed a significant amount of the variance. This study indicates that this issue should be closely monitored by management and addressed promptly.

The Italian School Psychologists' Role: A Qualitative Study about Professional Practices and Representations.

School psychologists' relevance has been broadly affirmed. However, there is no shared definition of their professional role, and more efforts are needed to promote an organisational and whole-school approach. The present study aims to investigate practices and representations of Italian school psychologists, advance knowledge of the status and development of school psychology, and learn more about the approaches currently adopted in schools. A qualitative method was used and 11 focus groups with a total of 86 participants were carried out. Ad hoc instruments were defined. The results highlighted that school psychologists are more focused on building one-on-one relationships, whereas relationships with the organisation as a whole appear to be more difficult. However, participants reported a wide range of activities, targeted to both the individual and the organisation. Moreover, efforts to strengthen the relationships with school principals and the entire school community were described. Specific needs emerged and the necessity to better define the school psychologists' role was reported by the participants. More efforts are needed to promote an organisational approach among Italian school psychologists and specific training should be offered.

Recruitment and Retention of Bilingual Graduate Students in School Psychology: Efforts and Challenges in Increasing Professional Diversity

The main goal of this paper is to illustrate recruitment efforts, strategies, and challenges in the process of training bilingual school psychologists to serve diverse schools. First, we address the acute and chronic shortage of bilingual school psychologists in the United States, particularly in urban schools where student populations are increasingly diverse. Then we provide a review of strategies and efforts to recruit and retain bilingual graduate-level learners in one school psychology program in an urban university. Quantitative data regarding recruitment and retention efforts are discussed. We identify challenges and future directions to increase diversity in the field of school psychology.