Mental Health Research Productivity of Nasp-Approved School Psychology Programs: 2010-2015

With the evident need for mental health support of children and adolescents, there are identified professionals prepared to provide services within the school setting. The school psychologist is considered a key resource for providing mental health services such as preventive and crisis response (Dwyer, 2004; Armistead, 2008). Based on our country’s mental health needs and the significant role that schools can make in meeting those needs, it is pertinent to take a closer look at the literature specifically related to mental health. This review focused specifically on the field of school psychology’s contribution to mental health literature and established a baseline of how much nationally recognized school psychology training programs and their core faculty members are contributing to the existing pool of knowledge. The current study was adapted from the dissertation conducted by Carper (2002) and the later published article by Carper and Williams (2004). Carper’s research in 2002, reviewed all scholarly productivity of faculty in American Psychological Association (APA) - accredited school psychology doctoral programs in order to obtain results on authorship credit and themes between 1995-1999. The current study has employed methods consistent with Carper and Williams in order to highlight productivity data of mental health related articles from faculty in National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) - approved school psychology programs providing masters, and education specialist degrees between 2010-2015. Article abstracts were compiled via PsycINFO and ERIC by confirmed faculty first and last name. Faculty scholarly productivity was measured by calculating authorship credit. To determine authorship credit for articles that indicate more than one author the proportionate formula, initially implemented by Howard et al. (1987), was be applied: (1.5 ⁿ⁻¹)/(∑ 1.5 i⁻¹). Article abstracts were coded for four general themes of assessment, intervention, consultation, and issues related. Additional coding was performed for subcategories within the general themes. Analyzing the data related to mental health served to identify the top scholarly producing NASP - approved school psychology programs and faculty, principal publishing journals, and the general mental health publication themes within the school psychology field during the six-year span. A function of the school psychologist role is to meet the mental health needs of students by providing social-emotional prevention and consultation support, counseling intervention, and response to crisis. However, historically, the role of conducting assessments and evaluations has dominated the school psychologist practice with mental health intervention coming up short (Agresta, 2004). The current study has identified the contribution of school psychologists in higher academia to this area of literature in 2010-2015 as the responsibility and pressure to implement and provide mental health services grow for practicing school psychologists