School psychology graduate training in evidenced based interventions for mental health

A critical role of school psychologists includes providing and supporting the delivery of evidence-based mental health services to meet the rising emotional and behavioral needs of youth. However, studies document that school psychologists often feel unprepared from their graduate training to implement evidenced based interventions (EBIs). This study examined training across school psychology graduate programs in various EBIs through a survey research design. The study was designed to examine training directors’ level of familiarity with EBIs, student level of exposure and experience with EBIs, and differences in training between doctoral and master’s level students. Survey data were collected from 40 school psychology training directors (23% response rate) from NASP approved and/or APA accredited school psychology master’s and doctoral programs in the US. The survey included seventeen EBIs from a variety of mental health problems related to youth depression, anxiety, trauma, and disruptive behaviors, with open ended responses to include those EBIs not included in the survey, but included as part of a training program. Results indicated that 43% of participating training directors were familiar with the EBIs included on the survey, 57% of training directors reported students had exposure (didactic instruction, observational learning, or a combination) to the EBIs included on the survey, and 32% of training directors endorsed that students have supervised experience implementing the EBIs included on the survey. The highest level of student exposure and experience was endorsed for EBIs targeting anxiety and disruptive behavior disorders. Results also indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the number of EBIs doctoral students were rated to have exposure to in comparison to that of master’s level students. There were no significant differences in the number of EBI’s doctoral and master’s level students had experience implementing according to training directors’ report. For open ended responses, training directors indicated a variety of EBIs, intermixed with evidenced based practices/general empirical approaches. The majority of interventions added by training directors were targeted for disruptive behavior disorders and varied in the strength of empirical support. Implications for school psychology training may include movement towards common elements and/or modular approaches, focusing on EBIs most relevant to the practice of school psychology and increasing the effectiveness of students’ supervised experience within graduate training.Psy.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Angela Gonnell