Self-Efficacy, Attachment Style and Service Delivery of Elementary School Counseling

Abstract

Professional school counselors are important contributors to education and serve an essential role in the academic, personal, social and career development of all students (American School Counselor Association [ASCA], 2012). Over the past decade, school counselors have been increasingly called upon to embrace data-driven, evidence-based standards of practice (ASCA, 2012; Erford, 2016) that bolster the achievement of all students (Shillingford & Lambie, 2010). Comprehensive developmental school counseling programs that are consistent with the ASCA National Model are currently considered best practice (ASCA, 2012) and identified as an effective means of delivering services to all students (Burnham & Jackson, 2000; Carey & Dimmitt, 2012; Gysbers & Henderson, 2012).Data from school counseling research indicate that comprehensive developmental school counseling programs make a positive difference in student outcomes (Carey & Dimmitt, 2012; Scarborough & Luke, 2008). These programs are shown to impact overall student development positively, including academic, career and emotional development, as well as academic achievement (Fitch & Marshall, 2004; Lapan, Gysbers, & Petroski, 2001; Sink & Stroh, 2003). Furthermore, a range of individual school counselor activities and interventions is associated with positive changes in a number of important student outcomes, including academic performance, school attendance, classroom behavior and selfesteem (Whiston, Tai, Rahardja, & Eder, 2011).However, studies examining actual school counselor practice indicate that school counselors spend a significant amount of time on activities that are not reflective of ASCA best practices, including clerical, administrative and fair share duties that take them away from performing essential school counseling activities (Bardhoshi, Schweinle, & Duncan, 2014; Burnham & Jackson, 2000; Foster, Young, & Hermann, 2005; Scarborough & Luke, 2008). A factor impeding school counselors' ability to perform activities that align with best practices includes being burdened with time-consuming tasks that are outside their scope of practice (Bardhoshi et al., 2014). This may stem from either the historically ambiguous school counselor role (Gysbers & Henderson, 2012) or from competing demands from numerous stakeholders who may not fully understand the components of an effective school counseling program (Bemak & Chung, 2008). Indeed, school counselors report not spending adequate time engaged in the professional activities that they prefer (Scarborough, 2005; Scarborough & Luke, 2008), even though these preferences are consistent with best practice recommendations (Scarborough & Culbreth, 2008). Therefore, for many school counselors, performing within their professional role and sticking to best practice recommendations regarding their service delivery can be challenging and stressful (McCarthy, Kerne, Calfa, Lambert, & Guzman, 2010).Given that school counseling program implementation and interventions that align with ASCA are associated with positive outcomes for students in a variety of domains, and that tension exists between the actual and preferred practice of school counselors, the question now becomes: What factors contribute to effective school counseling service delivery? Studies indicate a positive relationship between years of experience and school counselor practice (Scarborough & Culbreth, 2008; Sink & Yillik-Downer, 2001), as it may take several years of experience to implement the breadth and complexity of interventions in a programmatic manner. Research outside the field of school counseling also has expanded beyond demographic variables to indicate that a number of individual characteristics, such as attachment style (Dozier, Lomax Tyrrell, & Lee, 2001; Hazan & Shaver, 1987), emotional stability, locus of control, self-esteem (Judge & Bono, 2001) and self-efficacy (Judge & Bono, 2001; Larson & Daniels, 1998), are related to an individual's work performance. …