The Contribution of School Counselors\u27 Self-Efficacy and Professional Quality of Life to their Programmatic Service Delivery

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the directional relationship between practicing school counselors\u27 level of professional quality of life and self-efficacy to their programmatic service delivery activities. This investigation tested the theoretical model that practicing school counselors\u27 level of professional quality of life (as measured by the Professional Quality of Life Scale [ProQOLs; Stamm, 2010]) and their self-efficacy (as measured by the School Counselor Self-Efficacy Scale [SCSEs; Bodenhorn & Skaggs, 2005]) contributes to their service delivery activity (as measured by the School Counselor Activity Rating Scale [SCARS; Scarborough, 2005]). Specifically, this study examined the hypothesized directional relationship that school counselors who have higher ProQOL scores (e.g., less burnout and compassion fatigue and higher compassion satisfaction) and higher self-efficacy scores (e.g., more confident about counseling skills) have increased levels of programmatic service delivery facilitation (e.g., they provide high levels of school counseling activities for students and stakeholders). In addition, this investigation examined the relationship between practicing school counselors\u27 demographic factors and the constructs of professional quality of life, self-efficacy, and programmatic service delivery. Furthermore, the investigation examined the difference in response rate and school counselors\u27 total mean score (as measured by the ProQOLs, SCSEs, and SCARS) based upon the: (a) sampling method (e.g., email web-based, paper-pencil mail-out survey, face-to-face survey administration), (b) token incentive type (e.g., monetary [$1.00, $2.00, or no incentive] or non-monetary [$1.00 donation to the American Red Cross or no donation]), and (c) sampling population (e.g., ASCA dataset or Common Core Dataset)? A review of the literature is presented, which provides conceptual theory and empirical research to support the constructs and their hypothesized relationship. A descriptive, correlational research design was employed to investigate the research hypothesis and exploratory research questions. The data was collected through diverse survey methodologies (e.g., email web-based, paper-pencil mail-out survey, face-to-face survey administration). The research hypothesis was tested through the utilization of structural equation modeling (SEM). In addition, multiple linear regression, spearmen rho correlation, Mann-Whitney U tests, Kruscal-Wallis H tests, and Chi Square tests of independence were used to analyze the data for the exploratory questions. The results of the investigation are presented and compared to current literature and prior research. Additionally, the limitations of the study are discussed and recommendations for future research are presented. Last, implications from this investigation are discussed in regards to practicing school counselors, school counselor educators, and school counseling researchers. The sample size for this investigation was 690 with 577 used for the data analysis after data cleaning. The results of the SEM analyses identified that practicing school counselors\u27 professional quality of life contributed to their programmatic service delivery (1.21% of the variance explained). In addition, the results identified that practicing school counselors\u27 self-efficacy contributed to their programmatic service delivery (34.81% of the variance explained). Furthermore, the analysis indicated that the covariance between professional quality of life and self-efficacy accounted for 26% of the shared variance between these two constructs of interest. Implications of the findings from the study include (a) school counselors\u27 self-efficacy contributes to their programmatic service delivery (large effect size), (b) school counselors\u27 professional quality of life and self-efficacy contribute to one another (medium to large effect size), and (c) school counselors\u27 professional quality of life contributes to their service delivery (small effect size). Additionally, this study provides implications in regards to: (a) the psychometric properties of the ProQOLs, SCSEs, and SCARS with a national sample of practicing school counselors and (b) research methodology related to differences in school counselors\u27 response rates and total mean score on the ProQOLs, SCSEs, and SCARS based upon the sampling method, incentive type, and sampling population