A Descriptive Analysis of Problem Checklist Utilization Among College and University Counseling Centers in a Southwestern State

Abstract

Abstract This study examined problem checklist utilization among 45 four-year college and university counseling centers in a southwestern US state. More than half of the respondents used a checklist. At medium/large institutions, all but one of the counseling centers utilized a problem checklist (92.8%), whereas less than half of the counseling centers at small institutions (41.9%) used this type of measure. Checklists were filled out by all student clients of the counseling centers in 92.3% of the cases. The mean years of checklist utilization was 6.4. The majority of the checklists (96.0%) originated in counseling centers with more than 73.0% having developed their own; only one center (3.9%) used a commercial instrument. The checklists were developed rationally rather than empirically. The mean number of questions in the checklists was 40.9. The mean number of minutes it took to answer the checklists was 5.8. Most counseling centers rated the information provided by checklists high in importance for cl...