School Counselor Burnout, Job Stress, and Job Satisfaction by Student Caseload

Abstract

In this cross-sectional quantitative study, we employed survey research to examine the differences in school counselors’ ( N = 327) burnout, job stress, and job satisfaction based on their student caseload size. The results indicated that higher caseloads were associated with higher degrees of burnout and job stress, along with lower job satisfaction. The results produced small to medium effect sizes. We discussed how such factors relate to the effectiveness of providing student services and school leaders’ support for school counselors.

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

“…Although researchers have previously reported negative trends between years of experience and burnout (Mullen et al, 2018) and student to school counselor ratios and burnout (Mullen et al, 2021) in participant samples of ASCA-member school counselors, we did not find statistically significant relationships among these variables in our sample of school counselors that was not based on enrollment in a professional organization. It may be challenging to directly compare our study results to Mullen et al (2018Mullen et al ( , 2021 since researchers used different instruments to measure burnout. It was interesting to note that percentage of time spent in counseling was significantly and negatively related to affective distress but not burnout or wellness, as found by Randick et al (2019).…”

“…Our findings extend researchers’ findings that supportive engagement in supervision has on school counselors’ experiences of burnout and wellness (Bledsoe et al., 2021; Fye et al., 2020; Holman et al., 2019). Although researchers have previously reported negative trends between years of experience and burnout (Mullen et al., 2018) and student to school counselor ratios and burnout (Mullen et al, 2021) in participant samples of ASCA‐member school counselors, we did not find statistically significant relationships among these variables in our sample of school counselors that was not based on enrollment in a professional organization. It may be challenging to directly compare our study results to Mullen et al.…”

“…It may be challenging to directly compare our study results to Mullen et al. (2018, 2021) since researchers used different instruments to measure burnout. It was interesting to note that percentage of time spent in counseling was significantly and negatively related to affective distress but not burnout or wellness, as found by Randick et al.…”

“…School counselors work toward meeting the academic, career, and social/emotional needs of all students in the school setting (ASCA, 2019), despite high student to school counselor ratios (Mullen et al., 2021). This requires school counselors to engage in counseling duties, while often spending a significant amount of time on additional job demands (Bledsoe et al., 2021).…”

Personal and Group Professional Identity in the 21st Century Case Study: The School Counseling Profession

“…In addition, school counselors are also teachers and they must hold classes at the school to a varying extent according to the school's regulations (Deshevsky, 2009). Studies from around the world also attest to the considerable burden on counselors, who are required to carry out a large number of tasks (Bardhoshi, Schweinle, & Duncan, 2014;Kim & Lambie, 2018;Mullen, Chae, Backer, & Niles, 2021). Counselors have bureaucratic work that includes too much paperwork, perceived as bothersome and boring.…”