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Evaluation of a counselling intervention in primary schools
Author(s) -
Sherr Lorraine,
Sterne Abram
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
clinical psychology and psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.315
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1099-0879
pISSN - 1063-3995
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-0879(199910)6:4<286::aid-cpp204>3.0.co;2-o
Subject(s) - intervention (counseling) , normative , psychology , set (abstract data type) , cohort , clinical psychology , medicine , psychiatry , computer science , programming language , philosophy , epistemology
The emotional needs of children within a school setting may fall between health and educational service provision. There has been a growth of school based counselling provision and this study reports on an evaluation of counselling provided through a charitable organization for primary school children. The study was set up to explore the differences on educational and emotional parameters between children referred for counselling and those not referred and to examine change over time on these parameters after six months of counselling provision. A consecutive cohort of children referred to the project by teachers ( n =24) were compared with matched class peers ( n =25) on a set of standardized educational and emotional measures, repeated at six months follow‐up. There was little difference between the groups prior to intervention except on number skills. Overall scores were low, with the majority of mean scores for standardized tests more than one standard deviation below average normative levels. There were few differences after the intervention, except for the fact that intervention group children were significantly less worried in school ( p =0.03). The small pilot study suggests that there were no significant differences between control and intervention groups on cognitive or emotional functioning prior to intervention except for number skills. Pre–post‐intervention analysis revealed an improvement on block design—perhaps accounted for by improved concentration skills—and an improvement in self‐esteem. This study highlights the challenges facing children in inner city schools and the gains made by counselling provision. It sets the agenda for future studies to examine content of counselling and explore cost effectiveness of provision. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.