Preservice Teachers’ Knowledge About Supporting Students At Risk for Suicide

Collaboration among teachers, school psychologists, and other mental health professionals in the schools is critical to provide students who are at risk for suicide with comprehensive resources and support. This study explores preservice teachers’ knowledge of the school psychologist’s role in supporting them while working with students at risk for suicide compared to preservice teachers’ knowledge on other more common school psychologist roles within the school setting. It was hypothesized that participants would not be as knowledgeable about the school psychologist’s role in working with students at risk for suicide compared to their knowledge about the other common school psychologist roles. It was also hypothesized that special education majors would demonstrate more knowledge about the school psychologist’s roles than regular education majors would, and that participants who reported having worked with a school psychologist in the past would demonstrate more knowledge of the roles of the school psychologists than those who had not. Participants were preservice teachers attending a medium sized university in the Midwest, recruited via email, to complete an anonymous online Qualtrics survey. Results of this study suggest that preservice teachers in this sample do not seem to be aware of the school psychologist’s varied roles within the school, instead perceiving the primary role as one to help with students at-risk for suicide/mental health concerns. Results provide insight into preservice teacher knowledge about the school psychologist’s role in supporting students at risk for suicide and can help future school professionals collaborate more effectively and better support suicidal students