The relationship between assignment of non-counseling duties and job stress and burnout among school counselors in Texas

Purpose of the study. The purpose of my study was to examine the relationships between school counselor participants' perceived levels of job stress, as measured by the Demand-Control-Support Questionnaire (DCSQ), an alternate form of the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ, Karasek, 1985), and burnout, as measured by the Counselor Burnout Inventory (CBI; Lee et al., 2007), with the assignment of non-counseling duties, as measured by the School Counselors Activity Rating Scale (SCARS; Scarborough, 2005).;Method. A survey was sent via Survey Monkey to Texas school counselors that included a demographic questionnaire, the DCSQ, the CBI, and the SCARS “Other Duties” scale. Factorial ANOVAs were conducted to determine if there were differences between a variety of demographic variables identified by the literature and the levels of job stress and burnout experienced by school counselors. A Pearson's Correlation Matrix was conducted to examine the relationships between the subscales of these instruments, which led to choosing the predictor variables that were entered into a hierarchical multiple regression analysis producing an equation suggesting what predictor variables would account for the variance in Texas school counselor burnout.;Results. There were no significant differences between the demographic variables and both the JDCS and CBI. The correlation matrix produced by question three resulted in entering the following variables into a regression equation that accounted for 90.5% of the variance in school counselor burnout in Texas: External Demands (35%), Exhaustion (31%), Deterioration in Personal Life (11%), Negative Work Environment (7.5%), and Level of Coworker and Supervisor Support (6%).;Implications and future research. Implications for the school counseling profession, school counselor educators and supervisors, educational administrators and school counselors are discussed. Recommendations for future research are offered regarding school counselor burnout as well as potential prevention and intervention methods. Specifically, the need for further validation of the DCSQ and CBI for use among school counselors; establishing cutoff scores for these instruments; and development of a valid instrument for measuring the external demands experienced by school counselors are delineated.;Keywords. School Counselors, Job Stress, Burnout, Non-counseling Duties.