Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Watson, Joshua C.

Committee Member

Boggan, Matthew

Committee Member

Palmer, Charles

Committee Member

Porter, Julia

Committee Member

Wells, Debbie

Date of Degree

4-30-2011

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Counselor Education

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

College of Education

Department

Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Foundations

Abstract

What a counselor-in-training believes about his or her ability directly impacts his/her persistence and ability to perform a task successfully. Evidence shows a link between academic factors and counselor self-efficacy with trainees who perform better academically being more confident in their ability to counsel. In addition, there is a strong probability that part of a trainee‟s belief system and subsequent behavior choices are connected with his or her total wellness. Having a higher self-efficacy can improve counselor competence and give insight into the gatekeeping process. Because there is limited research to address academic factors and total wellness of counseling self-efficacy (CSE) of counselors-in-training (CIT), this study concentrates on the gap in the educational and counseling literature. This research documents the extent to which these variables can contribute to the prediction of CSE of CIT. Specifically, academic factors, wellness and CSE of CIT were assessed across randomly selected CACREP accredited master‟s-level counseling programs. Liaisons were contacted, provided a description of the study, and invited to ask any questions related to their students‟ involvement in the study. Those who agreed to allow participation in their program were asked to forward an email introducing the study and requesting participation to counseling practicum and internship students at their institution. In the email, potential participants were provided with directions for accessing and completing the survey, contact information for the researcher, and approximate deadline for completion. Each participant was asked to complete a consent form, a demographic questionnaire, the 5F-Wel, and the Counselor Activity Self Efficacy Scale. There were 2 hypotheses considered in this study. First, a significant relationship will exist between academic factors and the CSE of CIT. This hypothesis was not supported. A significant relationship will exist between the total wellness score and the CSE of CIT. Regression analysis revealed that the complete model including all 5 predictor variables did not significantly predict CSE of CIT. This model accounted for only 6 % of the variance of CSE of CIT. Thus, this hypothesis was not supported. These findings indicate the need for additional research to examine which factors contribute to the CSE of CIT.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/19340

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