Date of Graduation

5-2011

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Counselor Education (PhD)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Rehabilitation, Human Resources and Communication Disorders

Advisor/Mentor

Roy C. Farley

Committee Member

Kristin K. Higgins

Second Committee Member

Christopher Lucas

Third Committee Member

Jennifer Miles

Keywords

Counselor training, crisis and trauma management, crisis, trauma

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of a personalized school-wide crisis and trauma management training program for master's-level school counselors-in-training. The study began with Pilot Study 1: Crisis Training Need Assessment which sought to best identify the crisis training needs for a specific geographic region. Results from Pilot Study 1 supported that unexpected student and teacher death was the crisis category which affects students the most and is in need of further training at the master's level. Next, Pilot Study 2: Crisis Training Feedback sought to obtain comments and suggestions from masters- and doctoral-level counselors-intraining regarding a personalized school-wide management training developed for the main study. Results from Pilot Study 2 indicated that both the content and the method of delivery for the crisis training were above adequate, as reported by the participants. The Main Study: Assessing the Effectiveness of a School-Wide Crisis Management Training was then implemented to assess the effectiveness of the intervention on school counselors-in-training sense of preparedness to intervene in an unexpected student and teacher death crisis incident. Twenty-seven (N = 27) CACREP and non-CACREP participants were asked to complete the School Counselor-in-Training Crisis Preparedness (SCIT-CP) inventory, a 19-item assessment, at four data collection points across a semester while enrolled in a school counseling practicum or internship course. Between data collection time points 2 and 3, the 3-hour crisis training intervention was presented to the participants. Results indicated that non-CACREP students reported a greater sense of preparedness to intervene in an unexpected student and teacher death crisis incident than did the CACREP participants at all four data collection time points. Additionally, all students demonstrated a greater sense of preparedness to intervene following the crisis training than before receiving the crisis training. Results from this study support the use of in-service training experiences in master's-level curriculum, particularly in courses where students are concurrently working in a school counseling field experience. Implications for this study also lend support for the continued need for training in CACREP required standards that are pertinent to professional school counseling practice, such as crisis and trauma detection and intervention.

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