Gone viral: Content characteristics and relative quality of highly shared school psychology-related content on Pinterest

Educational professionals, including school psychologists, are utilizing extant social media platforms to gather ideas, strategies, and resources to serve students with a variety of needs. The concern about the quality of resources remains a consistent reservation by proponents of adherence to best practices and evidence-based programs. The present study examined a sample (n = 444) of the most highly shared pins in a random sample of content from followers of the National Association of School Psychologists Pinterest account. The research team conducted content-coding for tool type, content type, the original source of the materials, and functionality and user-friendliness. Results indicated that there was a high representation of social-emotional, autism-related, and intervention-related material. Allied professionals (such as teachers) disseminated much of the content that was highly shared. Inferential analysis revealed that there were differential patterns of utility, functionality and content types across various original sources from the internet.