This paper examined the perceptions of school administrators in the state of Illinois concerning their roles in preventing school violence. Targeted school violence has increasingly been a concern in the United States. It is a type of violence that transcends everyday altercations in the school context, and rises to the level of deliberate,…

Mental health concerns on college campuses are at an all-time high. Within the student-athlete population, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) reported suicide as the third leading cause of death (Ching, 2018). Furthermore, in a survey conducted by the NCAA of more than 37,000 student-athletes during the month of April 2020, 50% of…

The objective of this research was to gather the experiences of six participants from various 2-year and 4-year colleges in the state of Alabama. Participants were solicited using a flyer posted in-house and online to students who are members of the Equality and Advocacy Center (EAC) as well as the Acceptance of Diverse Population Center (ADPC).…

"The issue of what to do in response to suicidal students is anything but a clear one" (Harshbarger, 2014, para. 3). How to best support students with severe mental illness is an ongoing challenge for institutions of higher education. Institutions must adapt to a rapidly changing landscape of evolving federal policy, case law, and…

Using a qualitative design, a clinical mental health counselor explored the use of trauma-informed self-regulation strategies with clinical mental health counselors in training (CITs) to capture their experience of vicarious trauma. Participants included three CITs in an urban setting and two CITs in a rural setting enrolled in a CACREP-accredited…

School shootings are tragic and devastating events that have become increasingly prevalent, with 158 incidents recorded since 2018 (Education Week, 2023). These events have lasting psychological and emotional impacts on survivors, families, and educators, emphasizing the crucial need for prevention strategies. Schools must provide a safe and…

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) college students are among the most vulnerable to suicide when compared to cisgender and heterosexual students (Casey et al., 2022; Hatchel et al., 2021; Horwitz et al., 2020; Ketchen-Lipson et al., 2019; Shepherd et al., 2023). Building upon Joiner's (2005) interpersonal…

The college mental health crisis continues to worsen across American campuses. According to the Healthy Minds Network (2020) Fall 2020 survey, 50% of undergraduate college students screened positive for two mental disorders; anxiety and/or depression. Due to this increased prevalence, many institutions of higher education (IHE) have not been able…

Existing literature suggests that the pervasive issue of institutional betrayal--the failure to prevent sexual assault or respond supportively when it occurs that exacerbates distressing mental health symptoms--is a factor in one's ability to cope with the trauma of the assault. This study investigated female undergraduate students' experiences of…

To close the achievement gap between first and continuing generation students, several interventions that specifically target first-generation students have been designed and delivered in a variety of settings. These interventions are typically intended to promote wellness and support academic achievement in students' college careers, which in…

Collegiate student-athletes have been shown to use available mental health resources at a significantly lower rate than the general student population despite there being no evidence that student-athletes experience a lower rate of symptoms of mental illness. This study explores the experience of athletes in a pre-existing, preventative,…

The pandemic, COVID-19, increased the online activity of millions of adolescents globally resulting in an unprecedented amount of youth using the internet leaving them susceptible to cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is a global issue that has severe consequences on adolescents' mental health. Teachers have a vital role in the effective implementation…

The rates of death by suicide and the prevalence of mental health conditions in children and youth are a world-wide crisis. Education and school health promotion have a key role in supporting children, however initiatives and interventions are siloed and provide supports to only a few students. In this qualitative study with quantitative…

As evidence-based programs (EBPs) are transported to more representative clinical settings from highly controlled efficacy trials, their advantage over usual care (UC) is largely diminished. However, it is difficult to explain this phenomenon without a better understanding of the status quo in mental health care. Knowledge of the nature of UC is…

My dissertation studies the relationship between counseling and violence within U.S. schools. Much of the research on school security and school safety tends to lean heavily on routine activities theory and other opportunity theories, which limits the study of other factors critically relevant to this topic such as school climate. This…