The principal investigator (PI) for this study surveyed 207 American School Counselor Association (ASCA) members on their attitudes toward utilizing trained counseling paraprofessionals in school counseling. The PI also examined the relationship between participants’ attitudes and their subjective reports of the counselor-student ratios in their schools, the amount of work time they spent providing direct counseling services to students, and the extent to which their districts experienced a school counselor shortage. The participants’ mean reported counselor-student ratio (1:464.63) significantly exceeded ASCA recommendations of 1:250. Elementary counselors reported the highest counselor-student ratios while high school counselors reported the lowest. Furthermore the PI found a significant linear trend for counselor-student ratios to decrease as school level increased. The participants’ reported mean percentage of time involved in direct counseling services (61.48%) fell significantly below the ASCA recommended 70%. Elementary counselors reported the highest amount of time involved in direct counseling services while high school counselors reported the lowest. The PI also found a significant linear trend for percentages of time involved in direct services to decrease as school level increased. Over one-fourth of the participants indicated school counselor shortages existed in their districts. A majority of participants supported utilizing counseling paraprofessionals in their schools. The PI found a significant negative correlation between support for counseling paraprofessionals and percentage of time involved in direct services. Participants reporting the lowest percentage of time providing direct services to students thus expressed the strongest endorsement for utilizing counseling paraprofessionals. Participants most strongly endorsed assigning clerical duties to counseling paraprofessionals. They likewise endorsed assigning some indirect helping duties to counseling paraprofessionals. However, participants strongly opposed assigning direct counseling duties to counseling paraprofessionals. Based on the results of the study the PI developed recommendations for school counselors, school administrators, state education agencies, and institutions of higher learning regarding the training, education, and job duties of counseling paraprofessionals.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur skolkuratorer på grundskolan arbetar mot kränkande behandling i form av sexuella trakasserier. Vidare undersöktes om det förekommer skillnader i kuratorers bemötande, värderingar och bedömningar ur ett genusperspektiv med utgångspunkt från ett fiktivt fall. Metoden baserades på ett kvalitativt tillvägagångssätt med semistrukturerade intervjuer kopplade till en vinjett. Fyra deltagare utgick under intervjutillfällena från en vinjett och två tog ställning till en annan. Vinjetterna innehöll samma fiktiva berättelse förutom att elevens könstillhörighet var utbytt. Studiens vetenskapliga ramverk bestod av genusteori. Genomsökandet av tidigare forskning inom området visade att professionella vanligtvis gör en viss skillnad i bemötandet av klienter baserat på klientens könstillhörighet. Resultatet från den här studiens intervjuer synliggör dock inga utmärkande skillnader i bemötande beroende på elevens kön. Dock kunde vissa skillnader urskiljas i intervjupersonernas fria berättande i vilket intervjupersonernas förståelse av vissa typer av beteenden hos elever kunde härledas till stereotypa föreställningar om kön. Avslutningsvis diskuteras utifrån skribenternas perspektivhuruvida skolorna borde utveckla sina utbildningsstrategier avseende makt, sexualitet och samtycke. / The purpose of the study was to investigate how school counselors at compulsory school work against offensive treatment in the form of sexual harassment. Furthermore, it was examined whether there were differences in counselors' treatment, values and assessments from a gender perspective, based on a fictitious case. The method was based on a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews linked to a vignette. During the interview sessions, four participants were based on a vignette and two from another. The vignettes contained the same fictional story except that the pupil's gender affiliation was exchanged. The study's scientific framework consisted of gender theory. The search of previous research in the field showed that professionals usually make a certain difference in the treatment of clients based on the client's gender affiliation. However, the results of this study's interviews do not reveal any significant differences in treatment depending on the student's gender. However, some differences were discernible in the respondents 'free narrative in which the respondents understanding of certain types of behavior among students could be derived from stereotypical notions of gender. Finally, it is discussed from the writers' perspective whether the schools should develop their education strategies regarding power, sexuality and consent.

Utgångspunkten i studien var relationens betydelse och fokus i studien har varit att undersöka vad skolkuratorer anser vara förutsättningar för att bygga en relation med ungdomar. För att möjliggöra det har sex semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts med skolkuratorer i tre kommuner i Sverige. Det empiriska materialet har analyserats genom en tematisk analysmetod där huvudtemat Relationens betydelse framkom, vidare har fyra centrala teman som förutsätter relationsskapande analyserats fram. Respektive tema har ett undertema för att möjliggöra en fördjupning. Följande centrala teman och underteman var; Att finnas där och att lyssna, Att använda sin kunskap och att möta ungdomen där den är, Att vara människokännare och att vara flexibel, Att vara människa och att göra det lilla extra. Resultatet diskuteras utifrån tidigare forskning och Carl Rogers teori om den personcentrerade terapin samt Rogers tankar om den terapeutiska relationen. Studiens huvudsakliga slutsats var att relationen är A och O. / The starting point in this study was the importance of the relationship. The investigation examines school counselors experiences of creating conditions for relationships with young people. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted with school counselors in three Swedish municipalities. A thematic analysis was used to analyze the empirical material were the main theme the importance of the relationship was found. Four key themes of relationship creating conditions were also discovered. The central themes have subthemes to deepen the analysis. These central themes and subthemes were; To be there and to listen, To use the knowledge and to meet the youths perspective, To know people and to be flexible, To be a human being and to do more than required. The results have been discussed in relation to past research and the theory of Carl Rogers on person centered therapy and Rogers thoughts on the therapeutic relationship. The mail conclusion of the study was that the relationship is the key.

Sweden has an obligation to report child abuse suspicions to Social Services. According to Socialtjänstlagen (swedish constitution) 1 § Chapter 14, all employees in agencies affecting children, such as schools, have a responsibility to report their suspicions. Research shows that many abuses are not reported. The consequence of this is that Social Services does not hear about all cases of abused and harmed children. One profession where reporting is mandated is school counselors. The school counselor has a particular status in the educational community and meets many maltreated children, and children who injure themselves through their own behavior. The purpose of our study was to describe the circumstances that school counselors believe may affect their tendency to report. Using qualitative methods, we had eight interviews with school counselors from different municipalities who work with students of different ages, and who have different experiences within their profession. The result was related to the theoretical frames of the written composition by Stephen Webb’s (2006), The Rationality of Regulation and the Sociological Concepts of Formal and Informal Social Controls (Israel, 1968). Our study shows that all school counselors knew that a report had to be submitted even at the slightest suspicion, although several of them said that they in some cases avoided to report. The reasons for this, which all according to our interpretation means that the regulation and the social control of maltreated children does not always work, could have to do with the cooperation and response from the social services, or that they assumed that the involvement with the social services would not benefit the child. It could also be that the student’s situation was not serious enough to report, or that they wanted more information about the situation before reporting. Another reason could be that they assumed that there are better ways to sort out the students’ concerns within the school or other agencies, especially if it regards an older student. The study also shows that the school counselors felt there was a risk in losing the students trust when reporting their suspicions.

Over the last few decades there has been a significant increase when it comes to mental ill health amongst Swedish schoolchildren. The school counselor has a crucial role both when it comes to detecting and to deal with these social problems. But according to recent studies the school counselors’ profession seems to lack a universal-based defined job description which has led to a decreased autonomy as well as legitimacy-related issues. This made us ask ourselves if the school counselors’ competence is used to its full potential. The overarching purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of how school social workers experience and perceive health-promoting work based on their professional role. The specific aims were to answer the following questions: How do school teachers experience health promotion at school? How does the school counselor perceive their professional role? Our method in order to collect our empirical data was to through semistructured interviews with six school counselors in Sweden. To help increase the understanding of our data we used profession-theory and also role-theory. The summarized findings are that the school counselors are a part of a group created to support the schoolchildren’s health. This group is heavily affected by the school organization’s resource assets and the school counselors’ perception is that there aren’t enough time nor enough professionals working with school-based health-promotion compared to the amount of students attending the school. We also found that the school counselors have different room, a different degree of autonomy, in order to influence the structure of the health-promoting work at school. Our conclusion is that this difference seems to depend on the principal as well as on the type of employment the school counselor has. The externally employed school counselor experienced much more autonomy compared to the internal employees. Furthermore, the school principal is proven to have a strong impact on the school counselors’ professional role and the school counselors have experienced legitimacy-related issues towards certain teachers due to their undefined job description.

The aim of this thesis is to describe the content of the work of the school counselor at elementary school and emphasize the importance of his position there. The thesis concentrates also on his cooperation with other counseling organizations and the organization of the whole counseling system in our country. The theoretical part of this work is focused on the explanation of basic terminology from this field. The look at the history of the school counseling in our country and in English speaking countries then follows. This part also describes legal regulations which provide a model for the school counselors. On their base they provide their services. The following chapters concentrate on the description of the content of the work of school counselor and the description of the organizations with whom he often cooperates. The practical part of this work is created from the dialogues realized with the school counselors. The aim of it is to analyze what is the real content of the work of the school counselor, with who he usually cooperates during the problem solving and what are the opinions of the school counselors on the system of school counseling in our country generally.

Det pågår idag inom skolans vardagspraktik en tillämpning av polisanmälningar av barn under 15 år. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka skolkuratorers perspektiv på polisanmälningar i grundskolan, för att kunna beskriva och förstå vilken roll de har vid bedömningen. Syftet var också att undersöka om skolkuratorerna anser att en polisanmälan är förenlig med principen om barnets bästa och om de tror att en polisanmälan påverkar barnet. Vi har utfört en kvalitativ studie i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer med åtta skolkuratorer inom såväl kommunala- som friskolor i Stockholms län. Materialet från intervjuerna har analyserats med hjälp av professionsteori, stämplingsteori och vald litteratur. Resultatet visar att skolkuratorerna ser polisanmälningar av barn som ett komplext fenomen och de har en ambivalent hållning till tillämpningen. Skolkuratorernas erfarenhet är att polisanmälningar kan påverka barnet både positivt och negativt. Positiva erfarenheter lyfts i form av att ett barns oönskade beteende kan upphöra. Negativa erfarenheter beskrivs vara att det polisanmälda barnet kan få en stämpel som avvikare, vilket i förlängningen kan leda till negativa konsekvenser för barnet. Vidare visar resultatet att principen om barnets bästa, enligt skolkuratorerna, är att barn ska nå kunskapsmålen i skolan. Skolkuratorerna tycks inte ha reflekterat över huruvida skolrelaterade polisanmälningar är förenliga med principen om barnets bästa. Majoriteten har dock en negativ inställning till polisanmälningar av barn i grundskolan och menar att det finns andra, bättre, sätt att arbeta med barns oönskade handlingar. Trots att skolkuratorerna ger uttryck för att polisanmälningar kan påverka barnet negativt, visar studien att de sällan är delaktiga när det fattas ett beslut om att polisanmäla ett barn.Socionomer har genom sin profession ett uppdrag att företräda barn i utsatta situationer och bör därmed vara bärare av barnet bästa. Att skolkuratorer inte deltar i bedömningen och således inte företräder barnet anses problematiskt. Det framkommer att skolkuratorerna ser till sin funktion och är lojal skolorganisationen snarare än att se till sitt uppdrag som socionom. Avslutningsvis visar resultatet på att det behövs mer kunskap om såväl skolkuratorns roll, som fenomenet polisanmälningar i grundskolan och vilka konsekvenser dessa får för barn. / Today it is common for Swedish compulsory schools to write police reports about incidents caused by pupils below the age of criminal responsibility.  The purpose of this study was to examine school counselors perspective on police reports in compulsory schools, in order to describe and understand the role they play in assessing. Another purpose was to examine whether the school counselors believe that a police report is consistent with the principle of the best interests of the child and if they believe that a police report affects the child. The study is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with eight school counselors in both municipal and independent schools in Stockholm county. The material from the interviews has been analyzed using professional theory, labeling theory and selected literature. The result shows that school counselors see police reports of children as a complex phenomenon and that they have an ambivalent attitude towards the application. The school counselors’ experience is that police reports can affect the child both positively and negatively. Positive experiences are described as a child's unwanted behavior can come to an end. Negative experiences are described as the fact that the police-reported child can get a label as an outlier, which in the long run can lead to negative consequences for the child. Furthermore, the result shows that the principle of the best interests of the child, according to the school counselors, is that children reach the knowledge goals in school. School counselors does not seem to have reflected on whether school-related police notifications are consistent with the principle of the best interests of the child. The majority, however, have a negative attitude towards police reports towards children in compulsory schools and mean that there are other, better ways to work with children's unwanted actions. Despite the fact that the school counselors express that police reports may adversely affect the child, the study shows that they are rarely involved when a decision is made to report a child to the police.  Through his profession, social workers have an assignment to represent children in vulnerable situations and should therefore carrier for the best interests of the child. The fact that school counselors do not participate in the assessment and thus do not represent the child is considered problematic. It appears that the school counselors look at their function and are loyal to the school organization rather than to attend to their assignment as social workers. Finally, the result shows that more knowledge is needed about the role of the school counselor, as well as the phenomenon of police reports toward children in compulsory schools and what their consequences are for the children.

Syftet med vår uppsats är att uppmärksamma skolkuratorers upplevelser och erfarenheter av att arbeta med psykisk ohälsa bland elever i grundskolan, samt vilka resurser de anser är nödvändiga för att elever i den svenska grundskolan ska ges rätt förutsättningar till en god psykisk hälsa. De arbetsvillkor skolkuratorerna arbetar utifrån belyses, och likaså vilka utmaningar och dilemman kuratorerna kan ställas inför i det dagliga arbetet. I vår studie uppmärksammas även vilka resurser kuratorerna har att tillgå för att kunna utföra sitt arbete, samt hur genomförandet av arbetsuppgifter kan skilja sig åt mellan olika skolor. Det resultat och den analys som presenteras i uppsatsens senare del grundar sig i sex stycken semistrukturerade intervjuer med skolkuratorer inom den svenska kommunala grundskolan. Det som väckte vårt intresse och föranledde vårt val av ämne var den ökade psykiska ohälsan bland barn och unga i det svenska samhället. Den bild av skolkuratorernas ansvarsområden och arbetsbelastning som framträder i studien anser vi är något som inte kan förbises, utan bör tas på allvar för att främja såväl kuratorernas möjligheter till ett gott arbete som elevers möjlighet till en god psykisk hälsa. / The purpose of our paper is to pay attention to the experiences of school counselors´ work with mental illness among pupils in elementary school, and what resources they consider necessary for pupils in the Swedish elementary school to be given the right prerequisites for a good mental health. The working conditions of the school counselor on the basis of the illumination, as well as the challenges and dilemmas the school counselor can face in their daily work. In our study, we also note the resources available to the school counselor in order to carry out their work, and how the implementation of tasks can differ between schools. The result and analysis presented in the later part of the essay is based on six semistructured interviews with school counselors in the Swedish municipal elementary school.

No description available.

The aim of the study was to examine, based on school counselors’ experiences, the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the mental health of upper secondary school students. To examine this, six qualitative interviews were conducted with school counselors currently working in upper secondary school. The results showed that some students have problems maintaining routines in everyday life during the covid-19 pandemic. The school entails an automatic structure that has disappeared for the students in connection with distance education during the pandemic. Distance education and other restrictions in society have also meant that students have spent more time at home, which means that a safe and supportive family has become increasingly important. As a result of upper secondary school students spending more time at home and not meeting their classmates at school to the same degree as before the pandemic, some have also lost or impaired their relationships with friends. This in turn has according to the informants, contributed to increased loneliness and isolation. Mental problems such as stress, anxiety, difficulty sleeping, and lack of motivation are common topics in the conversations between the school counselors and the students linked to the pandemic. / Syftet med uppsatsen var att utifrån skolkuratorers erfarenheter undersöka vilken påverkan covid-19-pandemin haft på gymnasieelevers psykiska hälsa. För att undersöka detta har sex kvalitativa intervjuer genomförts med skolkuratorer verksamma inom gymnasieskolan. Resultatet visade på att vissa gymnasieelever fått problem med att upprätthålla rutiner i vardagen under covid-19-pandemin. Skolan medför en automatisk struktur som försvunnit för eleverna i samband med distansundervisning under pandemin. Distansundervisning och andra samhällsrestriktioner har också medfört att gymnasieleverna spenderat mer tid i hemmet vilket gör att en trygg och stöttande familj blivit allt viktigare. Som följd av att gymnasieelever spenderat mer tid hemma och inte träffat deras klasskamrater i skolan samma grad som före pandemin så har också en del elever tappat eller försämrat sina relationer till vänner. Detta har i sin tur enligt informanterna bidragit till en ökad ensamhet och isolering. Psykiska besvär som stress, ångest, sömnsvårigheter och motivationsbrist är vanligt förekommande ämnen i samtalen mellan skolkurator och eleverna kopplat till pandemin.