Identifying common practice elements among consultation studies showing promising social and behavioral outcomes: A...

Consultation is a key service delivered by school psychologists that can reduce the burden of mental health problems and promote healthier school climates given its emphasis on problem solving, prevention and intervention, and supporting educator skill and competence. The purpose of this systematic review was to document how demographic and study design information was reported in the school consultation research and to identify common practice elements that cut across consultation outcome studies with promising student social and behavioral outcomes. We examined 48 studies (39 group design and 9 single-case design) published between 1980 and 2024 and applied a distillation method (Chorpita & Daleiden, 2009) to summarize demographic and study designs employed and to identify specific practice elements that emerged. Seventy-two percent of studies included students receiving tier two supports as the target for consultation. Forty-three percent of studies included graduate students as consultants, while only 10.4 % of studies included school psychologists as consultants. Demographic characteristics of consultants (i.e., gender reported 33.3 % and race/ethnicity reported 27.1 %) was less frequently reported when compared to the demographic characteristics of consultees and students. At the teacher level, consultant modeling (present in 58.3 % of studies) was the most common practice element, followed by performance feedback (56.3 %), and family engagement (41.7 %). At the student level, praise (present in 56.3 % of studies) was the most common practice element, followed by goal setting (52.1 %), functional behavioral assessment, and tangible rewards (47.9 % of studies). The relative infrequency with which some practice elements were coded (e.g., praise for teacher, cultural adaptation for teacher and student) point to avenues for enhancing school consultation research and practice.