What Makes an Effective Psychoeducational Report? Perceptions of Teachers and Psychologists

Abstract

The psychoeducational report has many purposes and many readers. Given this, it is imperative that psychoeducational reports are well written, as well as acceptable to and understood by the readers. This study aimed to determine from the perspective of both teacher (report reader) and psychologist (report writer) the factors that make an effective psychoeducational report. The current study examined the effects of report style and language on satisfaction with and understanding and perceived utility of psychoeducational reports as rated by teachers and psychologists with varying degrees of experience. We expected that reports which contained a theme-based organisation and a lower grade reading level would receive significantly higher ratings of satisfaction and utility, and be understood by teachers and psychologists at significantly higher levels than reports with neither or only one of these two characteristics. Results indicated that while teachers in the present study were not more satisfied with the theme-based non-technical report and did not rate it as more useful, they did consider non-technical language easier to understand. Psychologists, in contrast, were not impacted by either variation in report style. The impact of differences between writer and reader on perceived understandability of reports is discussed.