More students with more severe mental health conditions are entering college, putting ever greater pressure on university resources to meet the needs, both psychological and educational, of these students. Graduate student instructors and TAs (TAs) are uniquely positioned to connect these students to supportive resources, but may be underprepared…

This dissertation contains two studies that examine family therapy services within public schools related to behavioral or discipline concerns. Both studies stem from an ecological and family systems theoretical framework in examining relationships between the student, family, and school systems. The first study is a scoping review on family…

Problem: Communication sciences and disorders (CSD) graduate students may have trauma histories and may be ill-equipped to identify and manage trauma responses in clients. This mixed-methods study examined graduate student attitudes towards implementing trauma-informed educational practice (TIEP) methods and trauma-informed patient care. Method:…

This study examined the lived experiences of teachers and administrators as reflected in their responses regarding instructional materials, instructional delivery, social and emotional well-being of students, and access to critical school services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants shared their experiences about how the instructional…

Two hundred and seventy-six master's level students currently enrolled in an internship course at a Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs-accredited clinical mental health counseling program completed the researcher-developed survey, the Counselors in Training Perceptions of Family Systems Questionnaire…

Understanding the lived experience of Indigenous counselors-in-training provides insight into the barriers experienced in their graduate counseling programs. Hermeneutic phenomenology and Indigenous Research Methodology were used to explore the experience of five Indigenous counselors-in-training. The study involved two individual interviews and a…

Given that the obesity rate among school-age children is increasing, school nurses can play a vital role in managing obesity and encouraging healthy living in school settings. Obese children from low-income backgrounds are more vulnerable than other students and require more careful attention and intervention. This qualitative study aimed to…

COVID-19 poses serious challenges to the health and safety of childcare providers, and these challenges were particularly acute in early 2022 during the first Omicron wave when vaccines were not available for children. Childcare providers work in environments where the recommended methods to minimize COVID-19 infection were often not possible to…

This study investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on dance freelancers' mental health and wellbeing using a cross-sectional exploratory qualitative methodology. Findings from semi-structured interviews with six dance freelancers indicated the pandemic posed challenges to the mental health of dance freelancers, amplified preexisting…

The opioid overdose epidemic continues to disproportionately impact underserved rural areas throughout the nation, with many of these rural areas experiencing greater opioid-related mortality rates than their urban counterparts. With limited treatment infrastructure and resources, two rural communities in Southeast Utah utilized community-based…

In this paper, we add to the literature by exploring how sustainable development (SD) and sustainability-oriented learning, are reflected in the Swedish compulsory school and upper secondary school physical education and health (PEH) syllabi. The source of data was the PEH syllabi and the commentary material, as produced by the Swedish National…

A descriptive qualitative design explored how graduate students in a master of public health program perceive the advantages and disadvantages of online learning communities and identified factors promoting graduation success. Zoom video and audio interview recordings from 12 participants were analyzed using Braun and Clarke's (2012) six-step…

The current study sought to explore play therapists' barriers to engaging parents in their clinical work as well as understand the relationship between play therapist characteristics and their attitudes toward parents. Using a demographic questionnaire, Therapist Barriers to Engaging Parents (TBEP), and the Counseling Self- Estimate Inventory…

In 2020, the world faced a significant obstacle that halted day-to-day living: the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, students from low-income families in communities of color faced additional barriers, such as a lack of healthy food at home, little to no health insurance, and limited access to mental health services. Given these barriers, some…

Professional identity development of play therapists is an emerging topic of research. Though there is research on theoretical orientation development, there is no research on theoretical orientation development of play therapists. This constructivist grounded theory study aimed at developing a substantive model describing the process of…