Exploring school counseling during the first wave of COVID‐19

Abstract

In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, school counselors played an essential role in helping students, teachers, and families pivot to new learning environments and implemented services to promote students' academic, social-emotional, and career development. In this study, we analyzed school counselors' (N = 589) delivery of program services and their individual and school characteristics to identify four approaches to school counseling: reactive, universal, consultative/collaborative, and comprehensive during the first wave of the pandemic. School counselors in the reactive profile spent most of their time engaged in noncounselor-duties and reported the highest levels of burnout. Conversely, counselors belonging to the comprehensive profile devoted the most time to delivering consultation, coordination, counseling, and curriculum services and limited engagement in noncounseling-related duties. This study emphasizes the importance of defining the school counselors' roles and responsibilities and the extent to which school counselors were able to deliver their school counselor services during the global pandemic.

School counselors’ perceived school climate, leadership practice, psychological empowerment, and multicultural competence before and during COVID‐19

“…These results indicated that individuals reported an increased likelihood of reporting making meaning of negative experiences compared with 3 months prior to the pandemic. Our result also seems to be consistent with Villares et al.’s (2022) main finding that most school counselors were able to maintain school counseling responsibilities 3 months after the onset of COVID‐19.…”

“…Notwithstanding, school counselors seemed to be defaulted to the crisis mode immediately after the outbreak of COVID‐19. Role conflict and ambiguity have been reported to be common barriers when it comes to enactment of appropriate school counselor roles prior to the pandemic (Hilts et al., 2019), yet these barriers have been exacerbated by the COVID‐19 due to the priority to reacting to crisis (Levy & Lemberger‐Truelove, 2021; Villares et al., 2022). School counselors stressed the drastic transitions associated with the different modalities of learning, which contributed to their job to be primarily “putting out fires” (Limberg et al., 2022, p. 6).…”

As a pandemic strikes: A study on the impact of mental stress, emotion drifts and activities on community emotional well-being

“… Ni et al [14] (2020) Study the impact of social media, anxiety and depression in community-based workers and health workers during COVID-19 1577 community-based adults and 214 healthcare workers residing in China Online survey based on Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2 and Patient Health Questionnaire-2 Healthcare and community-based workers Close contact with COVID-19 patients and COVID-19 news on social media was associated with anxiety and depression in community-based workers and healthcare professionals Identify latent stress factors, analyze the emotional drift in people. Villares et al [29] (2022) Analyze the delivery of counseling services by school counselors during first wave of the pandemic 589 school counselors of USA who are members in American School Counselor Association (ASCA) Online survey based on School Counselor Activity Rating Scale (SCARS) and Counselor Burnout Inventory (CBI) through SurveyMonkey School counselors Mental stress due to non-counselling activities in school counselors involved in a reactive approach of school counseling in comparison to the ones involved in a comprehensive approach. There is a need to define roles and responsibilities of a school counselor to avoid burnouts Identify latent stress factors.…”

“…To assist students in recovering from the psychological impact, school counselors can be treated as the mental health providers [28] . However, a study by Villares et al reported mental stress in school counselors due to non-counseling duties, emphasizing the importance of defining roles and responsibilities [29] . Another study by Savitz-Romer et al studied the school counselor experiences and revealed ambiguity in their roles [30] .…”

Application of a Model of Workforce Resilience to the Education Workforce: Expanding Opportunities for Support

“…Similarly, surveys of school leaders during the pandemic indicated high levels of stress, anxiety, and overwhelm (Brackett et al, 2020). School staff working to support the mental health of students and families experienced heightened stress due to frequent crises, increased needs, and decreased resources (Villares et al, 2022 ). While some stress is inevitable, experiencing extended periods of heightened stress without access to adequate resources can be associated with poor physical and mental health (Farley & Chamberlain, 2021 ; Prilleltensky et al, 2016 ).…”