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Factors Influencing School Counselors’ Suspecting and Reporting of Childhood Physical Abuse: Investigating Child, Parent, School, and Abuse Characteristics

This study sought to explore possible child abuse reporting disparities among school counselors. The participants in this study were elementary school counselors (N = 398) from across the United States. Each participant read a series of vignettes and completed a survey regarding their inclinations about suspecting and reporting childhood physical abuse. The surveys manipulated the following variables: student race, family socioeconomic status (between-subject variables), relationship with the school counselor, and severity of abuse (within-subject variables). School counselors were found to be more likely to suspect defensive parents of abuse than cooperative or non-involved parents. School counselors were also less likely to suspect abuse when a child reported being hit without physical evidence than if a child had a bruised or broken arm. Last, school counselors were more likely to report a child with a bruised arm over a child who reported being hit without physical evidence. Although certain concerns emerged as a result of this study and all signs of abuse should be reported to the appropriate authorities, school counselors were more likely, across the board, to report abuse than to suspect abuse.