Date of Award

8-2022

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Program

Counselor Education

Department

Educational Leadership, Counseling, and Foundations

Major Professor

Dr. Roxane Dufrene

Second Advisor

Dr. Christopher Belser

Third Advisor

Dr. Zarus Watson

Abstract

School violence is a global concern. Although divergent disciplines (i.e., counseling, psychology, criminology, and sociology) have made efforts to address the concern, student violence continues to occur in schools. Currently, threat assessments are widely supported and utilized to prevent school violence by examining the contributing factors to a student’s threatening communication or behaviors. The purpose of the present research was the initial development of the Interdisciplinary School Violence Prevention Assessment (ISVPA) to be used by school personnel with existing threat assessment procedures in order to connect students to counseling services. Several challenges were experienced during the research (i.e., COVID, Hurricane Ida) that required a significant shift in the research questions and data analysis (i.e., from parametric to nonparametric analyses and a pilot study). A sample of 27 school personnel (i.e., middle school teachers, principals, and school counselors) were the participants. The ISVPA validity and reliability were assessed through qualitative and quantitative evaluations by an expert panel, focus group, peer reviewers, and school personnel. The results for face and content validity were limited. For the initial ISVPA reliability findings, correlations for 24 items on the ISVPA frequency subscale (π‘Ÿπœ = .50 - .85) and 27 items on the severity subscale ( π‘Ÿπœ = .50 - .83) were moderate to strong in strength and significant. Kendall’s tau-b correlations varied from weak to very strong for internalizing problems (π‘Ÿπœ = .23 - .84) and externalizing behaviors (π‘Ÿπœ = .37 - .92). However, correlations for extreme beliefs (π‘Ÿπœ = .21 - .95) and lack of attachment (π‘Ÿπœ = .21 - .69) did not support reliability of the ISVPA. Further research is needed to establish validity and reliability of the ISVPA.

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The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.

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