Moderating factors between self-efficacy and role stressors for high school counselors

Advisors: Charles E. Myers.Committee members: Lee C. Rush; Thomas J. Smith.The purpose of this study was to examine potential moderators of high school counselors' self-efficacy and role stress. The study provides an overview of the sources of school counselor role stressors, the history of school counseling, self-efficacy, and the Indivisible Self wellness model. Quantitative data was collected on 141 high school counselors who completed a demographic survey, the School Counselor Self-efficacy Scale (SCSE), the 5F-Wel, and the Role Questionnaire (RQ). The RQ measures three role stressors: role ambiguity, role conflict, and role incongruity. Research question one measured the general regression model with each of the role stressors placed as the outcome variable. Research questions two, three, four, and five looked for potential moderators (wellness, Years in Profession (YIP), gender, and school setting) of the school counselor self-efficacy and role stressor relationships. Several significant moderators were found. Wellness enhanced the effects of self-efficacy to lower role ambiguity, DeltaR2 = .02, Delta F (6, 134) = 5.349, p = .022. After 6.28 years YIP significantly enhanced the negative relationship between self-efficacy and role ambiguity, DeltaR2 = .03, Delta F (6,134) = 6.27, p = .014. After 11.41 years YIP enhanced the positive relationship between self-efficacy and role conflict. Although the school setting subsamples were small, suburban school setting demonstrated a significant difference in slope from rural settings. Suburban school settings role ambiguity scores remained unchanged across all levels of self-efficacy, but rural school settings role ambiguity scores were more strongly negatively as self-efficacy increased.;Implications could lead to an increased emphasis for school counselor wellness and self-efficacy development. This may be particularly important in the early years in the school counseling profession.Ed.D. (Doctor of Education