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theses

Scarce research exists on school psychology graduate students’ perceptions of school psychologist functions. Understanding training school psychologists’ perceptions of school psychologist functions is important because inaccurate perceptions may lead to unmet professional expectations, leaving trainees at risk for reduced job satisfaction, burnout, and other negative outcomes. This study used a survey research design to examine newly enrolled school psychology graduate students’ perceptions of how school psychologists spend their time in comparison to self-reports from school psychologists as recorded in the 2010 NASP survey of school psychologists. The study also assessed regret after participants were presented with data on the proportion of time school psychologists actually spend providing special education evaluations and direct services such as individual and group counseling. Finally, demographic variables such as professional experience in public schools prior to entering graduate school, age, gender, highest degree earned, highest degree pursued in graduate school, degrees offered by program, and program theoretical orientation were investigated for their potential relationships with time estimates and regret. Respondents included 182 newly enrolled graduate students in NASP approved and/or APA accredited school psychology specialist, Master’s and doctoral programs. Results revealed that participants underestimated the percentage of time school psychologists spend conducting special education evaluations by nearly 20 percentage points when compared to results from the 2010 NASP survey, t(399.54) = 12.2, p<.000, d=.76. Participants overestimated the time school psychologists spend providing individual counseling t(465.27)=2.94, p<.001, d=.17 and group counseling (444.74) = 5.42, p < .001, d = .409, η2 = .04, by approximately 2 percentage points, in comparison to results from the 2010 NASP survey. After presenting data about the actual time school psychologists spend engaged in special education evaluation and direct service, over 25% of participants indicated regret for pursuing training in school psychology. A positive correlation was found between prior professional experience in the public school system and time estimates for special education evaluation, r (175) = .14, p = .03. Other demographic variables did not correlate with or predict time estimates or regret. Implications for the field of school psychology may be increased effort to ensure accurate portrayals of the profession.

ETD_9045

Psy.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Yaakov Weiner

doi:10.7282/T3XW4P8T

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.