Principal Investigator: Katherine R. Nelson

Title of Study: National Survey of School Psychologists’ Suicide Risk Assessment Practices

You are invited to participate in a research study. This form includes information about the study and contact information if you have any questions.

I am a graduate student at the University of Connecticut and I am conducting this survey as part of my coursework.

The purpose of this study is to develop and administer a national survey based on research-based best practices for suicide risk assessments in schools. This survey will investigate to what extent school psychologists are utilizing best practices when conducting suicide risk assessments and provide information regarding gaps in risk assessment content. This information on areas of competency and development will help to determine areas of future training of current and future school psychologists to encourage the use of empirically-based content for suicide risk assessments. Better practices in school-based suicide risk assessments will provide identification of students at risk for suicide and improve suicide prevention in schools.

You will be asked questions about your school-based suicide risk assessment practices. This study should take approximately 5 minutes of your time. Your participation will be anonymous. You will receive up to 3 reminder emails to participate in this study, but after the 3 reminders you will not be contacted again in the future. You will not be paid for being in this study.

We do not anticipate any risks from completing the survey. Some people may experience discomfort when answering questions related to suicide risk assessment. You can choose to skip any question that you do not want to answer. A second inconvenience would be the time it takes to complete the survey. I do not anticipate this survey taking more than 15 minutes to complete.

You may not benefit from this research. However, the benefits of your participation may impact society by helping increase knowledge about school psychologists’ school-based suicide risk assessments.

We will do our best to protect the confidentiality of the information we gather from you but we cannot guarantee 100% confidentiality. Your confidentiality will be maintained to the degree permitted by the technology used.  Specifically, no guarantees can be made regarding the interception of data sent via the Internet by any third parties.

You do not have to be in this study if you do not want to be. You do not have to answer any question that you do not want to answer for any reason.  We will be happy to answer any questions you have about this study. If you have further questions about this project or if you have a research-related problem, you may contact Katherine Nelson atkatherine.nelson@uconn.edu.