Self-Efficacy and Burnout in Professional School Counselors.

AbstractThis study investigated the relationships between burnout and self-efficacy among school counselors. Also, the level of their burnout and self-efficacy was examined in terms of the social support, task perception and the number of students. A sample of 194 school counselors filled out the Maslach Burnout Inventory, The School Counselors Self- Efficacy Scale, and Personal Information Sheet. For the analysis of the data, Pearson correlation coefficient, regression, t and F tests were employed. The results of the study revealed that self-efficacy predicted depersonalization and personal accomplishment dimensions of burnout in school counselors. In addition, it was found that the counselors who take social support, have a positive attitude towards their profession and the lower number of students counselor provide service, the lower the burnout and higher the self-efficacy belief.Key WordsSelf-efficacy, Burnout, Social Support, School Counselors.Today, school counselors while giving service in educational settings have many different roles as professionals. Regarding the students' academic, career, personal/social developments, on the one hand, they deal routinely with complex situations in which students have acute counseling needs, including cases of severe depression and suicid attempt, pregnancy, substance abuse, school violence, and child abuse; and on the other hand, they deal with parents, teachers and they provide consultation services to the outside agencies (Page, Pietrzak, & Sutton, 2001; Paisley & McMahon, 2001). School counselors in these situations may feel stressed and overworked and may be probably experiencing professional burnout (Kruger, Botman, & Goodenow, 1991; Mills & Huebner, 1998; Gokcakan & Ozer, 1999). It might be proposed that providing a high quality service to the students is related directly with the positive self-efficacy belief of school counselors (Gunduz & Celikkaleli, 2009). For this reason, present study investigates the relationship between the self-efficacy beliefs and burnout levels of school counselors.Bandura (1986; 1995) notes that people's selfefficacy beliefs defined as their capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations are significant for people adding that they won't exert any effort to realize anything if they believe that they are not capable of yielding any result. According Bandura (1977a; 1977b), self-efficacy beliefs are based not only on people's expectations to acquire knowledge and skills but also their expectations to overcome problems and realize certain actions required to accomplish under social pressure and distress. In other words, people should have self-efficacy beliefs, apart from knowledge and skills, which enable them to put knowledge and skills into practice effectively to perform in life with success. Thus, peop le who carry out the same tasks and have knowledge and skills outperform one another according to their levels of self-efficacy. They may fail when they do not possess sufficient knowledge or are deprived of self-efficacy beliefs required to provide the necessary skills (Bandura, 1986, 1997). Based on studies conducted about self-efficacy beliefs, people may develop specific self-efficacy beliefs in various areas such as mathematics, communication, science, social life, sports and professions apart from their general self-efficacy beliefs and define themselves accordingly. Accordingly, selfefficacy beliefs of school psychological counselors are defined as their judgments on their capabilities to provide psychological counseling and guiding service to students and other people related to students in an effective manner (Friedlander, Keller, Peca-Baker, & Olk, 1986; Larson & Daniels, 1998; Larson et al., 1992; Sharpley & Ridway, 1993). According to Larson and Daniels, the mechanism of counseling self-efficacy beliefs accepted as a creative skill helps school counselors use their existing cognitive, behavioral and social skills by integrating these skills with their roles as counselors. …