School psychologists in Portugal: Training profile and educational needs

• Autor(a) principal: MENDES, Sofia Abreu
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: ABREU-LIMA, Isabel, ALMEIDA, Leandro Silva
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Estudos de Psicologia (Campinas)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.puc-campinas.edu.br/estpsi/article/view/7993
• topic: Education; Continuing education; Portugal; School psychology; Psychologists; Educação; Educação continuada; Portugal; Psicologia escolar; Psicólogos

The profile and training needs of Portuguese school psychologists, working in public and private schools, were analysed based on a survey with 477 professionals. Results show that in conjunction with training in domains directly related to psychological practice in the school context, many school psychologists reported having a specialization course in the field of clinic and/or health psychology. The identified training needs appear to reflect the nature of the problems encountered in the field (e.g., learning difficulties, indiscipline and behaviour problems), as well as the main intervention areas of Portuguese school psychologists (e.g., special educational needs, assessment, support/counselling and vocational guidance). In parallel, results show that some professionals desire to expand their field of expertise beyond the so-called traditional roles. We discuss the implications for the initial and continuing training of school psychologists.