Commentary: Promise and unrealized potential of mixed methods research in school psychology.

Mixed methods research (MMR) has been proposed as one potential remedy for the persistent research-to-practice gap in school psychology. This commentary underscores MMR's promise in producing research that can bridge this divide while emphasizing the ongoing need for more exemplary MMR studies within the school psychology literature. We propose Rogers (1995) model of innovation adoption as a framework for understanding why MMR remains underutilized in school psychology research. Factors such as the complexity of well-executed MMR research and the limited MMR expertise within the school psychology field are discussed. The willingness of the field to address these challenges and embrace MMR more fully is pivotal to the future of school psychology research. This commentary invites examination of these issues to help propel school psychology towards greater integration of research and practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

A Case Study Exploration into the Benefits of Teaching Self-Care to School Psychology Graduate Students.

It has long been established that school psychology practitioners experience high levels of burnout. As a means of preventing burnout among future practitioners, school psychology training programs are frequently encouraged to teach and model self-care to students. This is particularly important as the current generation of graduate students experience high levels of anxiety and depression, but there have been very few examples in the research literature of how training programs should teach self-care and whether it is actually effective. The current study presents results from an exploratory case study, which integrated self-care instruction into graduate school psychology curriculum with a small sample (N = 22) of first-year school psychology students across two separate cohorts. Students created written plans with self-care strategies that they attempted to implement over the course of their first semester in graduate school. A qualitative review of their plans and written reflections revealed that students described many sources of stress upon entry into training, and most needed to revise their strategies for coping as stresses changed during the semester. Overall, student reflections revealed that the self-care activities were helpful to meet the demands of their graduate education.