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THE LEGAL CONTENT OF SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY JOURNALS: A SYSTEMATIC SURVEY
Author(s) -
Zaheer Imad,
Zirkel Perry A.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
psychology in the schools
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1520-6807
pISSN - 0033-3085
DOI - 10.1002/pits.21805
Subject(s) - psychology , legislation , school psychology , content analysis , principal (computer security) , legal psychology , medical education , pedagogy , law , social psychology , social science , political science , sociology , medicine , computer science , operating system
The many challenges that school psychologists face inevitably include legal issues. In light of the agreement between the two primary professional organizations for school psychologists that understanding of law is a critical competency, this study analyzed the extent of law‐based articles in leading school psychology journal articles published from 1970 to mid‐2013. The method was a systematic multi‐step search, selection and coding process. The primary findings included that (a) a very small proportion of the articles in five leading school psychology journals contained a notable level of legal content; (b) the number of these articles initially trended upward but stabilized at a lower level during recent decades; (c) assessment and special education were the most frequent subject categories, and (d) the principal sources of law were federal legislation/regulations and court decisions. The discussion includes implications for professional practice and recommendations for follow‐up research.