Correlates of wellness, affective distress, and burnout among school counselors

Abstract

AbstractThis cross‐sectional study used structural equation modeling to examine the directional relationship between school counselors’ (N = 339) wellness and burnout and whether the latent variables were indirectly mediated by affective distress, while controlling for years of experience, student‐to‐school counselor ratios, percentage of time spent in counseling duties, and engagement in supervision monthly. Results found that engagement in supervision monthly was positively related to wellness and negatively related to burnout. Percentage of time spent in counseling duties was negative related to affective distress. Based upon the model fit, we found a statistically significant direct effect of wellness on burnout, while controlling for the indirect effect of affective distress (β = −0.32, p < 0.001). Additionally, wellness was significantly and negatively related to burnout (−0.32) and affective distress (−0.51). Affective distress was significantly and positively related to burnout (0.63). We discuss implications for the school counseling profession.