No description available.

This study investigated the sex-role attitudes of vocational guidance and counseling personnel in Texas. The population was comprised of vocational guidance counselors and vocational guidance teachers. The results demonstrated the association between their sex-role attitudes and the independent variables, occupation, sex, age, level of education, marital status, and school district size. Data were obtained by sending the Osmond-Martin Sex-Role Attitude Scale with questions for the collection of demographic information. The SRAS is an instrument designed to identify the traditionality of the respondents' sex-role attitudes in four separate categories. The survey instruments were sent to two randomly selected sample groups.

This project is a descriptive study of the Albina Youth Opportunity School of Portland, Oregon. The school is described as one whose primary function is to help disadvantaged students who have extreme social and academic problems. The study focused on the students' perception of their teachers, who are defined by the school as teacher-counselors. Of the seventy full-time students, sixty-five participated in the study, and five refused to do so. The major questions of the study were concerned with the students' assessment of the teacher-counselors characteristics. Main areas for exploration dealt with the students' perception of the role of a teacher-counselor in relation to their specific needs. Factors taken into consideration were sex, age, length of attendance at the school, and the student's belief that the teacher-counselor liked or disliked him. A questionnaire was administered to each student in order to determine his assessment of the teacher-counselor role. Date was analyzed with the help of scale-measured attitudes of variables dealing with teaching and counseling items and tests of significance. Indices were computed from the data. Descriptive statistics included the use of frequency distribution, percentages, means, medians, and correlations. Study findings indicated that some students see the role differently, and some differences were difficult to interpret in terms of specific traits. There were differences in perception associated with the factors of sex, end length of attendance at the school. The findings suggest that the student's belief that the teacher-counselor like or dislike s him or her is associated with perception. They also yield evidence that the students perceive the teacher-counselor concept as a duel role. Implications are that the students who attend this school are being provided learning environment which is helpful to their needs.

This qualitative study used an exploratory phenomenological approach to examine professional school counselors‘ perspectives on the effects of military parental deployment on school aged children and adolescents. The voices of school counselors who work with military connected children are absent from the literature. The research site was a professional counseling conference in Germany in the fall of 2010. Participants consisted of 12 professional school counselors who work with school-aged children and adolescents who have experienced parental military deployment. Participants adopted pseudonyms though several indicated an affiliation with Department of Defense Dependent Schools (DODDS) and therefore offered their unique perspectives as school counselors living in military communities and working almost exclusively with military connected children and families. Data collection consisted of individual interviews with counselor participants. Data analysis consisted of coding meaningful words and phrases and yielded 33 preliminary categories that became new codes. Analysis of relationships between codes resulted in the emergence of four distinct themes: Military Life, Stages of Deployment, Role of the Counselor, and Children and Adolescents. Themes were supported by quotations of meaningful statements, thus participant voices provide thick, rich descriptions of the phenomenon. Validity strategies included peer debriefing, researcher positionality, and multiple examinations of the data set.

According to the ASCA National Model, school counselors are expected to deliver classroom guidance lessons; yet, there has been little emphasis on graduate coursework targeting the development and implementation of guidance curriculum lessons in PSC training. A national study conducted by Perusse, Goodnough and Noel (2001) was conducted looking at how counselor educators were training “entry level school counseling students” in the skills needed for them to be successful as PSCs. They found that of the 189 school counseling programs surveyed only 3% offered a guidance curriculum course and 13.2% offered a foundations in education course. Inferring that many of programs surveyed did not have a course specific to classroom guidance and/or classroom management. A classroom guidance curriculum is a developmental, systematic method by which students receive structured lessons that address academic, career, and personal/social competencies (ASCA, 2005). Classroom guidance lessons provide a forum for school counselors to address such student needs as educational resources, postsecondary opportunities, school transitions, bullying, violence prevention, social-emotional development, and academic competence in a classroom environment (Akos & Levitt, 2002; Akos, Cockman & Strickland, 2007; Gerler & Anderson, 1986). Through classroom guidance, school counselors can interact with many of the students that they would normally not see on a day-to-day basis while providing information, building awareness and having discussions on topics that affect these student populations every day. The present study seeks to explore the use of an innovative method for training PSCs in classroom guidance and classroom management. This method iv involves the use of a mixed reality simulation that allows PSC students to learn and practice classroom guidance skills in a simulated environment.

Children between the ages of 6 and 15 years were interviewed using a questionnaire designed to assess their conception of confidentiality in the counseling experience. This questionnaire was based upon the stipulates for confidentiality outlined in the 1977 American Psychological Association's Code of Ethics. Children age 6 to 8 years scored significantly lower on the questionnaire than children age 12 to 15 years. Neither of these groups' scores were significantly different from the score of children age 9 to 11 years, yet the total mean scores increased as the age of the children in the groups increased. These results suggest that children gradually evolve a conception of confidentiality consistent with professional guidelines. Four variables were examined which were expected to grossly predict the child's total score on the questionnaire. Chi-square analysis did not reveal significant differences for the variables of perceived adequacy of explanation of confidentiality and attitude toward breaking a secret. For the two variables involving the children's perception of the maintenance/violation of their confidentiality, chi-square analysis did reveal significant differences (which were not, however, found using a one-way analysis of variance procedure). Some demographic variables were found to be significantly related to scores on the questionnaire, yet most of the relationships involved specific area scores rather than total scores.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to determine which, if any, of seven variables, as well as the linear combination of same, help to explain a significant amount of variance between ideal and real role function of counselors in the implementation of PL 94-142. The study investigated whether the explained role incongruence was increased, independently or collectively, by the following independent variables: (1) discrepancy of counselors and special education administrators' perceptions of appropriate counselor responsibilities in assisting with the implementation of PL 94-142 (discrepancy index), (2) amount of staff development regarding special education topics, (3) experience, (4) counselor-student ratio, (5) sex of counselor, (6) degree classification, and (7) proportion of time clerical assistance is available to counselors. The study was conducted in West Virginia by surveying a random sample of public school counselors and all fifty-five (55) special education administrators in the state. Questionnaires were returned by 204 of the 216 counselors in the sample and by 54 of the 55 special education administrators, for an overall return rate of 95.2 percent. Data was collected from January to March, 1983. Results of the multiple regression analysis, stepwise method, indicated that the linear combination of staff development, discrepancy index, and experience explained a significant amount of role incongruence variance. No relationship was found between role incongruence and any of the independent variables when each was considered independently. The item analysis of counselors' responses on the questionnaire indicated that a majority have assumed primary responsibility for eleven of the forty tasks on the questionnaires, even though a majority perceived twenty-seven of the tasks to be appropriate. The tasks which a majority of counselors perceived to be appropriate but had not assumed as a primary role pertained to the delivery of related services, the Individualized Education Program (IEP) development and evaluation process, communicating with parents to acquire or disseminate information, and administering instruments to assess areas such as self-concept, interests, and career maturity. Eight (73 percent) of the eleven tasks which a majority of counselors reportedly have assumed as a primary role are quasi-administrative. The remaining three primary role tasks assumed by counselors include participation in school-based assistance team meetings and placement advisory committee meetings, as well as providing career education programming for handicapped students. / Ed. D.

When school-based behavior problems are not solvable in short-term school counseling, referrals are often made to community therapists. The school-based referral process is described in the literature as an informal process aimed at matching clients' needs with therapist skills but the literature also suggests that the referral process is based even more so on the relationship of the school counselor to the therapist. A survey of 19 school counselors was conducted to measure the importance of six factors identified in a pilot study that are used in selecting a referral source; Therapist Accessibility, Therapist Commitment to School, Therapist Philosophy and Belief System, Therapist Reputation, and Therapist Credentials. In addition, 19 community-based therapists were surveyed to measure their ranking of these same factors. When the scores were analyzed it was found that school counselors rated two scales, Therapist Accessibility and Therapist Reputation, significantly higher than did therapists. Surprisingly, Therapist Reputation was rated least important by both groups. This research has the potential to help strengthen the engagement between the school system and the mental health system by first identifying the factors used for school-based referrals and then identifying the differences in how the two systems perceive the importance of these factors. / Master of Science

This study investigated the role-performance of middle and high school counselors in one-counselor public school settings in Virginia; in particular, how these counselors use their time. One goal was to determine whether these counselors were currently meeting the state’s “sixty percent counseling accreditation standard” and what impediments they encountered in their efforts toward compliance. The researcher observed and interviewed a middle school counselor and a high school counselor to gather information about counselor role-performance in the one-counselor school which would be helpful in designing an appropriate research instrument. All counselors who work in one-counselor middle and high schools in Virginia were contacted to participate in a survey regarding their use of time. In addition, a sample of these counselors participated in the next phase of the study by recording their activities over a two day period on a counseling log provided by the researcher. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data and to report the findings. The findings of this study are consistent with prior studies of counselor time-utilization showing that counselors spend much of their time in activities considered outside their role, and less time in counseling than they would like. More than half of the counselors in this study did not meet the 60% counseling standard and identified the barriers to compliance they encountered. Recommendations are made regarding counselor time management, educational preparation, and a system of accountability linked less to time-utilization and more to student outcomes. Additional recommendations are made for further research. / Ed. D.