Abstract

Sleep is an important and necessary part of life. While the biological need for sleep among school-aged individuals has not changed over the years, the quality and quantity of their sleep has. School-aged children reporting sleep deficits in the United States is on the rise and a significant body of research establishes associations between a lack of sleep and lower cognition as well as psychological and behavioral problems. These associations can heavily influence the academic progress and success of students. School psychologists are in a unique position to identify and provide support to individuals with sleep issues. Unfortunately, there is little evidence in the literature to suggest that school psychologists are regularly accounting for sleep. Additionally, no studies have attempted to explore the barriers and facilitating factors for regular sleep screening/assessment among school psychologists. The present study surveyed 105 school psychologists to ascertain the proportion of practitioners who report assessing or screening for sleep issues. School psychologists were also asked to identify potential barriers and facilitating factors related to treating sleep challenges. The results indicated that many school psychologists are not assessing, screening, or treating students for sleep issues or disorders. Many school psychologists report minimal exposure to sleep training within their graduate programs and practitioners cite a lack of training and awareness to sleep-related resources as both major barriers and facilitating factors to implementing sleep related practices. The results highlight the continued lack of emphasis on sleep training within the profession of school psychology. Practitioner's responses indicated a need for better sleep training and education within professional training programs, including equipping such programs with faculty possessing expertise and experience with sleep training/treatment. Results also indicated a need for professional school psychology associations and organizations, such as the National Association of School Psychologists, to provide better awareness, training, professional development opportunities, along with increased visibility to resources on sleep for practitioners to utilize. Furthermore, this article provides practitioners a variety of sleep-related resources to better prepare and educate themselves to provide the best possible services to students and families.

Degree

EdS

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Counseling Psychology and Special Education

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2023-08-11

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd12951

Keywords

school psychology, sleep, evaluation, barriers, screening tests, identification

Language

english

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