Experiences of school psychological counselors in child abuse cases: A qualitative study

This study is a qualitative research examining the experiences of school counselors in cases of child abuse. seventeen school psychological counselors (13 females, 4 males) participated in the study. In the research, in order to collect the data 'semi-structured interview form' prepared by the researcher and 'personal information form' to collect demographic information of participants were used. The data obtained was analyzed via content analysis one of qualitative data analysis methods and the themes were presented. The findings about the experiences of school counselors in child abuse cases were gathered under nine themes. These themes are as follows; (1) perceptions of child abuse, (2) types of abuse encountered in school counseling services, (3) studies in the prevention, detection and response stages of abuse in school counseling services, (4) difficulties experienced in the response to abuse cases, (5) institutions and organizations cooperating in cases of abuse, (6) situations in cases of abuse, (7) perceptions of competence in working with cases of abuse and recommendations on improving competence, (8) the adequacy of existing laws on child abuse and new legal arrangements to be made, (9) recommendations for preventing child abuse. Keywords: Child abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, school counselor, school counseling service.