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Retention and job satisfaction of school psychologists
Author(s) -
Young Ellie L.,
Moulton Sara E.,
Julian Alexander,
Smith Alivia,
Butler Rachel
Publication year - 2021
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.22465
Subject(s) - psychology , school psychology , economic shortage , work (physics) , value (mathematics) , job satisfaction , field (mathematics) , medical education , applied psychology , pedagogy , social psychology , mechanical engineering , linguistics , philosophy , mathematics , machine learning , government (linguistics) , computer science , pure mathematics , engineering , medicine
Retention of current school psychologists is a vital strategy for addressing shortages in the field. Understanding what contributes to why school psychologists stay in the field has the potential to influence leaders and administrators to ensure that they are targeting what matters most to school psychologists. Survey results from 134 school psychologists indicated that they stay in the field because they enjoy working with children and believe their work makes a difference. These generally satisfied school psychologists also shared that they work with teams that facilitate effective and creative problem solving and were acknowledged for their contributions. For the few school psychologists who expressed dissatisfaction, their responses communicated a lack of professional self‐efficacy: their opinions were not valued, they did not believe they were effective in their roles, administrators did not value their contributions, and they did not believe they could make a difference for students. Implications for practice highlight the need for district and building administrators to ensure that school psychologists have manageable caseloads that allow them to work directly with children and to be a part of teams that solve problems.