1171 Commonly Encountered Yet Not Confident: Graduate Psychology Students’ Experience and Confidence Managing Sleep Disturbances

Introduction Trainee psychologists receive minimal sleep education during graduate psychology training programs, despite the frequent co-occurrence of sleep disturbances in mental health conditions. This study aimed to explore graduate psychology students’ experience working with sleep disturbances and their perceived skills and confidence to assess and treat sleep problems in clinical practice. Methods Australian graduate psychology students (N = 163) completed a novel survey developed specifically for the study, inquiring about their experience, skills and confidence to manage sleep disturbances in clinical practice. Students perceived skills to manage sleep disturbances were recorded on a 7-point Likert scale, where 1 = ‘strongly disagree’ and 7 = ‘strongly agree’. Students’ confidence to treat specific sleep disorders was also recorded. Results Sixty-eight percent of students reported having already worked with a client who experienced a sleep disturbance as part of their training. However, students’ perceived skills to assess and treat sleep disturbances were low. Only 14.9% ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that they had the skills to assess and diagnose common sleep disorders (M = 3.22, SD = 1.75). Similarly, less than a quarter of students ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that they felt comfortable using common sleep-related assessments (23.7%; M = 3.56, SD = 1.96) or empirically-supported interventions for sleep disturbances (22.6%; M = 3.71, SD = 1.83). The majority of students reported they were ‘not confident at all’ to treat parasomnias (80.3%); hypersomnias (77.9%); OSA (71.3%); circadian rhythm disorders (50%) or insomnia (41%). Conclusion Graduate psychology students report low levels of confidence in assessing and managing sleep disturbances in clinical practice, despite over two-thirds of students already working with clients experiencing sleep difficulties. Clinical training in the management of sleep disturbances is required for graduate psychology students. Support N/A

CONCEPTUAL KNOWLEDGE OF CONFIDENCE INTERVALS IN PSYCHOLOGY UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE STUDENTS

In recent years, there have been calls for researchers to report and interpret confidence intervals (CIs) rather than relying solely on p-values. Such reforms, however, may be hindered by a general lack of understanding of CIs and how to interpret them. In this study, we assessed conceptual knowledge of CIs in undergraduate and graduate psychology students. CIs were difficult and prone to misconceptions for both groups. Connecting CIs to estimation and sample mean concepts was associated with greater conceptual knowledge of CIs. Connecting CIs to null hypothesis significance testing, however, was not associated with conceptual knowledge of CIs. It may therefore be beneficial to focus on estimation and sample mean concepts in instruction about CIs. First published May 2019 at Statistics Education Research Journal Archives

Evaluating A Safe Space Training for School Counselors and Trainees Using a Randomized Control Group Design

School counselors need to advocate and act as an ally for all students. Safe Space, a training designed to facilitate competency for working with and serving LGBTQ youth (i.e., LGBTQ competency), has received increased attention in the field of school counseling. However, limited empirical support exists for training interventions such as Safe Space, with only one study to date examining its effectiveness for graduate psychology students (see Finkel, Storaasli, Bandele & Schaefer, 2003). This study used a randomized pretest-posttest control group design to evaluate and examine the impact of Safe Space training on competency levels of a sample of school counselors/school counselor trainees and to explore the relationship between LGBTQ competency and awareness of sexism and heterosexism.