This study investigated the impact of a counseling program based on social emotional learning in reducing math anxiety in middle school students. The sample consisted of 207 males and females from 7th and 8th grade students deliberately selected from Jordanian private schools, and randomly distributed equally into two groups: the experimental…

Poverty in the long run, as the long-term source of pressures, has strengthened the vulnerability of juveniles and has increased the incidence of psychological or behavioral problems during their growth. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen preventive intervention for adolescents to avoid poverty's "scar effect" upon their physical…

A K-12 public school district in the northeastern United States implemented its own clinical in-school counseling program (CISCP) to help at-risk students in Grades 7-12 who were experiencing a crisis. The problem was that the district was unaware of whether the CISCP is helping its students through their crises. The study was important as it…

Previous studies on poverty within the gifted population have shown that economically vulnerable gifted students are underrepresented in gifted programs. Moreover, the majority of published studies on this topic were conducted in Western cultures. We explored the psychological, cognitive, academic, social, and environmental supports for…

This research explored the career beliefs of inner-city adolescents (N = 97). Results identified six types of beliefs: success is related to effort, job satisfaction, work interest and liking, flexibility/adaptability, achievement and persistence, and toleration of uncertainty. A majority of these young people believed that their success was not…

During the Great Recession, 2008 to 2010, school systems scrambled to balance budgets, and the ratio of counselors to students became even larger. To make matters worse, the Great Recession had a major impact on cuts in educational funding. Budget cutbacks tend to occur where the public will be least likely to notice. The loss of teachers and the…

This study explored relations between culturally relevant stressors (i.e., urban hassles, perceived discrimination) and subjective well-being (SWB; i.e., positive/ negative affect, life satisfaction) to examine whether ethnic identity and/or coping strategies would serve as moderators of the relations between stress and SWB for 157 urban, ethnic…

This article presents the Achieving Success Everyday (ASE) group counseling model, which is designed to help school counselors integrate students' academic and personal-social development into their group work. We first describe this group model in detail and then offer one case example of a middle school counselor using the ASE model to conduct a…

The transition from eighth grade to high school results in a higher drop-out rate and more grade retentions than any other grade. However, when districts and schools develop and implement a sound transition program, the outcomes for ninth graders are improved. Key points of this briefing paper include the following promising interventions: (1)…

Given the frequent comorbidity of anxiety and depression, it is important to study the effects of depression interventions on anxiety and the impact of comorbid anxiety on depression outcomes. This article reports on pooled anxiety and depression data from two randomized trials of Interpersonal Psychotherapy-Adolescent Skills Training (IPT-AST), a…

This study explored how certain personality traits, behaviors, and social status may be associated with who is targeted as a victim of peer aggression. The sample consisted of 233 students in sixth through eighth grades from rural communities. Results indicate that symptoms of anxiety, a high sense of inadequacy, and elevated social stress are…

This article describes a middle school counseling department's journey and commitment to use data to seek more effective and efficient ways to provide comprehensive school counseling services to its diverse student population. Specifically, the study details the process used to design focused accountability questions that measured the…

Student achievement was compared between Washington State middle schools with comprehensive school counseling programs (CSCPs) and those without. Statistically controlling for socioeconomic status, multivariate analyses of covariance revealed minimal differences between students in CSCP and non-CSCP schools. Significant score differences emerged,…

Recent changes in the field of school counseling have called for professional school counselors to provide evidence of the effect their work has on the academic success of their students. This article presents the findings of a multi faceted action research intervention designed to help students at risk for retention. Findings indicate that…

This evaluation study explores the reform role of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) school counselors in promoting students' academic achievement, college readiness, and transition from 8th grade into high school. In addition, this report identifies particular actions that CPS can undertake to better utilize and support school counselor professionals,…