Can regular psychological support reduce school violence and improve students' outcomes?

This project will study the impact of regular psychological support on students' outcomes in Peru. The government implemented a program that randomly provided 500 out of 1,000 large schools with high reports of school violence the resources to hire a full-time psychologist to improve school climate and reduce school violence. The government equips the psychologist with specific guidelines to design strategies to reduce and prevent school violence while providing socio-emotional support to all community members, including students, teachers, and staff. The researchers will use administrative and survey data to estimate the effects of access to a full-time psychologist on school climate, violence reports, students' social networks, learning, and non-cognitive skills. Other outcomes include teachers' pedagogical practices, school retention, dropout, and college enrollment. They will also conduct focus groups with the psychologists to gain further insights into the expected impacts of the program and the mechanisms driving the main effects.