Assessing Efficacy and Importance of Career Counseling Competencies

Abstract

The authors examined self-efficacy and perceived importance of several career counseling competencies among counselors in school settings (N= 567). The social cognitive career theory was used as a conceptual framework. Participants completed a modified version of the Career Counseling Self-Efficacy Scale (CCSES) that also included an importance rating. A principal components analysis was used to examine the factorial structure of the modified CCSES and to determine the generalizabilty of the original CCSES findings to practicing school counselors. In addition, counselors' importance ratings were compared to those of a panel of counselor educators and career guidance consultants.Career counselmg has grown increasingly complex in recent years. Current theories have gone beyond traditional formulations of matching persons and environments to considering broader sociocultural and cognitive factors. Researchers and practitioners in the field of vocational psychology have contended that effective career counseling requires the treatment of both career concerns and psychosocial issues, as well as knowledge and efficacy regardmg a variety of current career counseling skills ) provides a conceptual framework for the current study, which examines school counselors' perceived efficacy in performing and the importance of the activity in relation to various career counseling competencies. The SCCT emphasizes the role of self-efficacy be- Kristin M . Perrone is an assistant professor of counselingpsychology at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana. Philip A. Perrone is professor emeritus of counseling psychology, and Fong Chan andKenneth R. Thomas are professors of rehabilitation psychology, all at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Vocational Services as Intervention for Substance Abuse Rehabilitation: Implications for Addiction Studies Education

“…The interconnectedness between psychosocial adjustment and vocational adjustment is well documented in the counseling and rehabilitation literature (Perrone, Perrone, Chan, & Thomas, 2000). Researchers have begun to document the value of vocational services in drug abuse treatment (Center for Substance Abuse Services, 2000; Magura et al, 2005;Platt & Metager, 1985;Staines et al, 2005;TOPPS-II Interstate Cooperative Study Group, 2003;Young, 2007).…”

Career and College Planning Needs of Ninth Graders— as Reported by Ninth Graders

“…It is possible that school counselors lack efficacy in career counseling, limiting their ability to provide useful assistance to students (cf. Perrone, Perone, Chan, & Thomas, 2000). Also, it may be that these first-semester ninth graders had had limited interactions with their new school counselors.…”

The Reliability and Factor Structure of the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale-SF With African Americans

“…Holland themes (Betz, Harmon, & Borgen, 1996;Lenox & Subich, 1994;Turner & Lapan, 2002) and self-efficacy for doing career counseling (Heppner, Multon, Gysbers, Ellis, & Zook, 1998;O'Brien & Heppner, 1996;Perrone, Perrone, Chan, & Thomas, 2000). Self-efficacy is now a key variable in the more comprehensive social cognitive career theory of Hackett (1994, 2000).…”