Collaboration between rural school counselors and educational stakeholders may create opportunities to address inequities; however, there is limited research on rural school counselors' collaboration relationships. The purpose of this dissertation study is to understand the experiences of rural school counselors within the Virginia Department of…

Students enrolled in accelerated academic programs are not immune to mental health concerns that other students may face. Despite the increasing evidence that perfectionism is correlated with psychological distress among adolescents, there is a gap in the literature on how interventions developed for use in adolescent populations may affect this…

Background: While adolescent mental health needs have continued to rise, schools have become a central location for adolescents seeking support for mental health needs, and approximately 96% of public schools in the United States report providing some form of mental health care to students. This study aims to explore school social workers' current…

This study illuminated the experiences and perceptions of high school counselors in low-performing schools. The study specifically explored the impact of the role of high school counselors on student engagement and outcomes (i.e., chronic absenteeism, dropout rate, and graduation and completion). A literature review revealed a need for research to…

This qualitative study focused on the insights of the participants in order to provide a more significant understanding of how they view their skills and abilities when providing mental health supports as a novice school counselor. A generic qualitative approach was used to answer the following research question, "What are the self-efficacy…

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are potentially traumatic events occurring in the household or community that hold painful or distressing outcomes for children immediately and in their future (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019). School counselors work with children and young adolescents suffering from negative mental health…

The American School Counselor Association Closing-the-Gap Action Plan template is a tool created to help school counselors identify educational gaps and track interventions. We applied a transcendental, phenomenological qualitative research method to explore school counselors' use of the template to advocate for students. Our findings demonstrate…

Although comprehensive school counseling programs are implemented widely across the country, school counselors face myriad barriers to implementation. As such, we conducted a multilevel, descriptive case study to examine a school counseling cohort preparing to apply for the American School Counselor Association's Recognized ASCA Model Program…

In the past decade, the counseling profession has begun to recognize the impact of vicarious trauma on counselors who provide services to individuals who have experienced trauma. The constructivist self-development theory asserts that interpersonal frameworks can determine healthy versus unhealthy coping styles and impact a counselor's…

This study sought to determine if a relationship exists among high school counselors' specific demographics, the educational experiences (i.e., professional development, training, and other coursework) of public high school counselors, the factors that influence public high school counselors to advise college-bound students to enroll in career and…

This study used quantitative measures to explore child abuse reporting trends for early career school counselors and to examine factors influencing their decisions to report suspected child abuse. Thematic coding was used to analyze recommendations for additional training needs regarding child abuse reporting and for the challenges school…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study is to evaluate the impact of Morrison High School's ninth grade transition program, the Freshman Academy, on student outcomes. Based on the outcomes, decisions will be made to determine if the Freshman Academy is meeting students' needs or if the program elements need to be revisited to improve student…

Many professional school counselors regularly serve as site supervisors to school counselors-in-training, despite never receiving formal supervision training. Using a phenomenological approach, the researchers explored school counseling site supervisors' (N = 15) experiences in a clinical faculty school counseling university supervision training…

Students in K-12 schools benefit from career counseling as a means to improve their readiness for academic and career success. This quantitative study explored the career counseling self-efficacy of 143 practicing middle school counselors using the Career Counseling Self-Efficacy Scale-Modified and a subscale of the School Counselor Self-Efficacy…

The burnout and stress experienced by school counselors is likely to have a negative influence on the services they provide to students, but there is little research exploring the relationship among these variables. Therefore, we report findings from our study that examined the relationship between practicing school counselors' (N = 926) reported…