Exploring school counselors’ and interns’ socioeconomic construct understanding and awareness

Abstract

Nine professional school counselors (PSCs) and eight school counseling interns in training (SCIT) participated in semi‐structured interviews to explore their understanding and awareness of socioeconomic constructs that influence a range of social, emotional, and academic outcomes for youth. Findings suggest that participants in both groups displayed advanced cognitive complexity of constructs, more SCIT focused on the micro‐level of economic stability, and more PSCs described the constructs through their experience with examples. The authors recommend that counselor educators and supervisors develop competencies to support advanced training and continuing education to increase clarity, awareness, and understanding of socioeconomic constructs that are impacting youth clients. The authors include future research directions.