Relationship between gender, race, socioeconomic status, and theoretical orientation and school psychologists' decisions to recommend counseling
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between gender, race, SES, and school psychologists' theoretical orientation and the decision to recommend counseling for students participating in special education. Case vignettes, of a child in a special education program, that varied by gender (male, female), race (African-American, white), and SES (low, middle) were randomly distributed to 210 school psychologists. A demographic data sheet requesting that each subject choose from either a cognitive-behavioral or psychodynamic theoretical orientation was also enclosed. The subjects were asked to rate the degree to which they felt that the child in the case they received (a) would benefit from counseling generally and (b) ought to receive counseling as a related service under the auspices of special education. The results demonstrated that theoretical orientation significantly related to the school psychologists' decisions. The subjects that identified themselves as from a psychodynamic orientation were more likely to recommend counseling, both generally and as a related special educational service, than were the cognitive-behavioral respondents. There was no significant relationship between the gender, race, or SES of the child in the scenarios and the school psychologists' decisions. Overall, the subjects were less likely to recommend counseling as a special education related service than generally. Implications for school psychology practice and future research are discussed.
Subject Area
Educational psychology|Psychotherapy|Social psychology
Recommended Citation
Perlman, Lowell, "Relationship between gender, race, socioeconomic status, and theoretical orientation and school psychologists' decisions to recommend counseling" (1994). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI9530963.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI9530963
