School Counseling Intervention Research: A 10-Year Content Analysis of ASCA- and ACA-Affiliated Journals

Abstract

Authors performed a content analysis of school counseling–related intervention research in 21 journals affiliated with the American Counseling Association and the American School Counselor Association across the 10-year span of 2006–2016. Results indicated that minimal school counseling intervention research articles were published ( N = 53) in these 21 journals during that time period and that most studies were quasi-experimental, single-group, pre-/posttest design with a fairly small N, raising questions about validity and generalizability of findings. We discuss implications for practice and future research.

An Ecological Examination of School Counseling Equity

“…The school counseling profession would especially benefit from more rigorous quantitative work given the limited number of causal studies existing to-date (Griffith et al, 2019). A comprehensive content analysis of school counseling research published within 21 counseling-related journals over the past decade located only 53 quantitative articles focused on school counseling-related interventions; only three of these articles incorporated randomized controlled trials or quasi-experimental designs that were conducive to generating causal claims (Griffith et al, 2019). This scarcity of strong quantitative evidence is not just disheartening-it is damaging to the profession and the students it serves.…”

The Evidence-Based School Counseling Conference: Contexts for Creating Change

“…While the web-based resources identified in Appendix provide clear evidence that school-based interventions can have significant positive impacts for students, too little of the K–12 research is done by or with school counselors. Often, the K–12 evidence-based interventions are designed and implemented by other school professionals, and we are still surprised and disappointed by the lack of research specifically on school counselor–led interventions and programming (see Griffith, Mariani, McMahon, Zyromski, & Greenspan, in press; McMahon, Griffith, Mariani, & Zyromski, 2017; Whiston, Li, Mitts, & Wright, 2017, for recent research summaries and meta-analyses). It is our fervent hope that the attention paid to evidence-based school counseling and the opportunities to demonstrate school counselor impact will continue to develop the profession’s value and, more important, improve students’ lives. For school counseling to continue its upward trajectory in value and visibility at the national educational level, we will need to continue to identify our best practices and the related research that demonstrates impact not just of interventions but of all aspects of our programs .…”

Evidence-Based School Counseling: Expanding the Existing Paradigm

“…While there has been some progress, an ongoing fourth challenge in EBSC is the need for more interventions with research supporting their efficacy (see Griffith et al, 2019; McMahon et al, 2017; Whiston et al, 2017 for recent research summaries and meta-analyses). Fortunately, there are interventions with evidence of efficacy in every domain of school counseling work and an increased call to identify other aspects of the counseling dynamic as evidence-based.…”