Using ethical orientations to explain administrative pressure to practice unethically: A pilot study

The promotion of students’ welfare is one of the central professional and ethical responsibilities of school psychology practitioners. However, some practitioners are subjected to pressure from administrators to engage in behavior that runs counter to ethical mandates and may be detrimental to students’ well-being. The phenomenon of administrative pressure to violate ethical standards might be explained by professionals’ adherence to disparate ethical philosophies, with school psychologists prioritizing the protection of individual rights and school principals valuing the “good of the many.” This pilot study explored the feasibility of using a scenario-based instrument in drawing out and comparing the dominant ethical perspectives of school psychologists and school principals. Participants (N = 56) consisted of 35 school psychologists and 21 school principals who completed a survey measure that included six ethical dilemmas, each featuring a conflict between the rights of an individual student and benefits to the larger student body. Participants were required to select the more ethical of two solutions from options reflecting either Kantian or utilitarian considerations. The results of this investigation point to the possibility that school professionals endorse conflicting ethical philosophies under certain circumstances. Although both professional groups tended to favor a Kantian framework, school principals were comparatively more supportive of utilitarian principles. The incorporation of ethical vignettes into research aimed at identifying incompatibilities in ideological preferences seems to hold promise as an investigative technique. Implications for practice are offered with an emphasis on suggestions for bridging the gap between professional considerations of administrators and school psychologists

Improving Schools’ Readiness for Involvement in Suicide Prevention: An Evaluation of the Creating Suicide Safety in Schools (CSSS) Workshop

Schools have an important role to play in combatting suicide, a significant public health problem that disproportionately affects adolescents and young adults. Schools can work to reduce youth suicidality by adopting policies that align with best practice recommendations pertaining to suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention. This study examined the impact of a one-day training, the Creating Suicide Safety in Schools (CSSS) workshop, on the readiness of school personnel to improve their schools’ suicide-related policies and procedures. Participants (N = 562) consisted predominantly of school-based mental health professionals working in communities of low or mixed socioeconomic status in New York State. Survey data were collected according to a one-group pre-test—post-test design with a 3-month follow-up. Workshop participants demonstrated improvements from pre-test to post-test in their attitudes about the importance of school-based suicide prevention, knowledge of best practices, perceptions of administrative support, and feelings of empowerment to work collaboratively to enhance their schools’ suicide safety. At follow-up, participants reported barriers to implementing changes, most commonly in the form of insufficient time and stigma surrounding the topic of suicide. The results of this study provide preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of the CSSS workshop as a promising method for improving schools’ suicide safety, yet additional research using randomized controlled trials needs to be conducted

Creating Suicide Safety in Schools: A public health suicide prevention program in New York State

Suicide is a serious public health problem worldwide. The World Health Organization calls for collaboration among all sectors of society using a multi-tiered approach to address risk factors. Schools have played a central public health role in fighting infectious diseases, malnutrition, community violence, accidental injuries, and heart disease. Similarly, when it comes to youth suicide prevention, schools are critically important community institutions.Schools are central civic institutions for building the resilience and positive helping environment necessary for the prevention of suicide. In this paper we will describe a program called “Creating Suicide Safety in Schools” (CSSS), which was developed to address the need for more comprehensive and consistentsuicide prevention training for school settings. The CSSS provides aframework for integrating school-based suicide prevention best practices, and the program is being implemented and evaluated in New York State. We will outline the CSSS model, the workshop, and how it is disseminated. The CSSS Workshop has been offered to school personnel for more than five years andindividuals from several hundred schools have participated in this training opportunity. Preliminary findings of the program’s acceptability in terms of attitudes, knowledge, perceptions of administrative support, and sense of empowerment based on a survey of 93 participants, will be presented.Suicide is a serious public health problem worldwide. The World Health Organization calls for collaboration among all sectors of society using a multi-tiered approach to address risk factors. Schools have played a central public health role in fighting infectious diseases, malnutrition, community violence, accidental injuries, and heart disease. Similarly, when it comes to youth suicide prevention, schools are critically important community institutions. Schools are central civic institutions for building the resilience and positive helping environment necessary for the prevention of suicide. In this paper we will describe a program called "Creating Suicide Safety in Schools" (CSSS), which was developed to address the need for more comprehensive and consistent suicide prevention training for school settings. The CSSS provides a framework for integrating school-based suicide prevention best practices, and the program is being implemented and evaluated in New York State. We will outline the CSSS model, the workshop, and how it is disseminated. The CSSS Workshop has been offered to school personnel for more than five years and individuals from several hundred schools have participated in this training opportunity. Preliminary findings of the program’s acceptability in terms of attitudes, knowledge, perceptions of administrative support, and sense of empowerment based on a survey of 93 participants, will be presented