How confident do high school counselors feel in recognizing students at risk for suicide?

Objective: To assess high school counselors' perceived self-efficacy in rec ognizing students at risk for suicide. Methods: A survey was completed by a random sample of 186 high school counselors. Results: Most counselors beli eved that it was their role to recognize students at risk for suicide and t hat if they did, it would reduce student suicides. However, only 1 in 3 bel ieved they could recognize a student at risk. High efficacy-expectations sc ores were significantly associated with working at a high school with a cri sis intervention team, Conclusion: This study suggests that school counselo r training programs could devote more time to developing the skills essenti al to recognizing students at risk for suicide.