The Relationship of Professional School Counselors' Self-efficacy and Motivation to their Counseling Service Delivery
Year: 2020
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between professional school counselors' perceived self-efficacy of mental health counseling skills (as measured by the School-Based Mental Health Survey; developed by A. D. Waliski & A. Barthel; adapted and published by Carlson & Kees, 2013) and level of situational motivation (as measured by the Situational Motivation Scale; Guay et al., 2000) to the extent of counseling services provided to students (as measured by the School Counselor Activity Rating Scale; Scarborough, 2005). Based on the principles of Social Cognitive Theory (SCT; Bandura, 1986) and Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2017), the researcher tested the hypothesis that practicing school counselors (N = 128) with higher levels of perceived self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation will report providing higher levels of counseling services to students. The results of the multiple linear regression analyses identified that school counselors' perceived level of self-efficacy was the only statistically significant predictor of the frequency at which school counselors provide counseling activities, β = .375, p < .001. Further, post hoc analyses revealed that the frequency at which school counselors preferred to do counseling activities was a more statistically significant predictor of the frequency of actual counseling activities, β = .562, p < .001. In addition, though not statistically significant, results found external regulation had an inverse relationship with all predictor models. Therefore, external factors may have a negative effect on school counselors' frequency of performed counseling activities, although additional study in this area is warranted. Implications for the findings include (a) greater insight into the internal and external drive of school counselors; (b) increased understanding of the training needs of school counselors; and (c) insight into the practices of school counselors as they tend to student mental health needs.
Author: Jon R. Borland
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3082039157