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Collective Self-Esteem and Burnout in Professional School Counselors

Article in Professional School Counseling · October 2005

DOI: 10.5330/prsc.9.1.17n4415l163720u5

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 S. Kent Butler is an
assistant professor in the
Division of Counseling
and Family Therapy at
the University of
Missouri–St. Louis.
E-mail:
slyconn@umsl.edu
Collective Self-Esteem and
Madonna G.
Constantine is a
Burnout in Professional School
professor in the
Department of
Counseling and
Counselors
Clinical Psychology at The authors examined the relationship between collec-
Teachers College, tive self-esteem (i.e., the extent to which school coun-
Columbia University, selors possess favorable perceptions of their professional
New York. or social group) and professional burnout in a sample
of 533 school counselors. They also explored whether
there were significant differences in professional
burnout in school counselors by sex, geographic location
of work setting, and number of years employed as a
school counselor. Results indicated that higher collec-
tive self-esteem generally was associated with lower
professional burnout. Moreover, the authors found
that school counselors working in urban school envi-
ronments reported significantly higher levels of
burnout than did their peers working in other types of
school environments. Furthermore, school counselors
who had been employed in their roles for 20 years or
longer reported higher levels of burnout than did their
counterparts working fewer than 10 years.
Implications of the findings are discussed.
S
chool counselors generally are employed in posi-
tions that entail working in a variety of profes-
sional roles with students and within school sys-
tems (Paisley & McMahon, 2001; Ribak-Rosenthal,
1994). In particular, school counselors assume a
broad range of responsibilities, which include pro-
viding individual and group counseling, conducting
psycho-educational outreach with a large student
body, providing educational testing and academic
advising, completing various administrative tasks,
and engaging in clinical supervision to school coun-
selor trainees, to name a few (Fitch, Newby,
Ballestero, & Marshall, 2001; Kuranz, 2002;
Pérusse, Goodnough, & Noël, 2001b). Because of
their myriad professional roles, accompanied by
increased workloads and marked ambiguity in role
responsibilities (Freeman & Coll, 1997; Kendrick,
Chandler, & Hatcher, 1994), school counselors may
be particularly susceptible to experiencing burnout.
Burnout is characterized by emotional fatigue, dis-
engagement, irritability, and apathy resulting from
the work environment (Haddad, 1998). The pro-
motion and maintenance of school counselors’ well-
being is paramount to their capacity to attentively
and sensitively serve students and to avoid or miti-
gate against feelings of burnout. In this investiga-
tion, we examined the relationship between collec-
tive group orientation (known as collective self-esteem)
and three dimensions of burnout in a large sample of
professional school counselors.
Collective self-esteem refers to individuals’ per-
ceptions of themselves as members of a social (e.g.,
racial, ethnic, religious, community, or work) group,
along with the value and emotional significance of
membership in this group (Bettencourt & Dorr,
1997; Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992). Unlike person-
al identity, which concerns individual characteristics,
collective identity relates to the characteristics of
individuals’ social groups and how they identify with
those groups (Crocker, Luhtanen, Blaine, &
Broadnax, 1994). Four components of collective
self-esteem have been identified in the literature
(Crocker & Luhtanen, 1990). Private collective self-
esteem is the extent to which individuals feel posi-
tively about their social groups (i.e., the internal
value that individuals ascribe to their given group).
The degree to which individuals believe that others
perceive their social group positively is referred to as
public collective self-esteem. Membership collective self-
esteem refers to the extent to which individuals
believe they are good members of their social group,
and the degree to which individuals view their group
membership as an important part of how they per-
ceive themselves is called importance to identity col-
lective self-esteem.
Various dimensions of collective self-esteem have
been associated with having an interpersonal rela-
tionship value orientation (Bettencourt & Dorr,
1997; Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992). Individuals who
often value relatedness with others and who possess
a strong identification with their social group may
display more interdependent attitudes in relation to
their group, which may produce beneficial outcomes
for them in the face of adverse or difficult situations.
For example, although Blacks in the United States
generally may feel good about their own racial
9:1 OCTOBER 2005 | ASCA 55
 group (i.e., have high private collective self-esteem),
external perceptions of their racial group may be
negative or derogatory (Cooke, 2002; Postmes &
Branscombe, 2002), resulting in lower perceived
public collective self-esteem. However, despite the
oftentimes negative perceptions of Blacks in this
country by non-Blacks, a multitude of studies (e.g.,
Gray-Little & Hafdahl, 2000; Twenge & Crocker,
2002; Yang & Blodgett, 2000) have documented
that Black Americans tend to have higher self-con-
cepts in comparison to their non-Black counterparts.
Thus, for some social groups, private and public
collective self-esteem may be virtually uncorrelated
(e.g., Crocker et al., 1994). Components of collec-
tive self-esteem have been associated consistently
with psychological well-being for more communal
Because of their and collectivistic social groups such as many people
of color (e.g., Constantine, Robinson, Wilton, &
myriad professional Caldwell, 2002; Crocker et al.; Zea, Riesen, &
Poppen, 1999) and women (Corning, 2002). Most
roles, accompanied research studies to date that have examined collec-
tive self-esteem have focused on ascribed social
by increased groups such as race, ethnicity, and sex (e.g.,
Bettencourt & Dorr, 1997; Constantine et al.;
workloads and Corning; Crocker et al.). In the current investiga-
tion, we focus on school counselors’ social group
marked ambiguity identity, which is considered to be an achieved social
group.
in role School counselors represent an important social
group by virtue of their strong professional identifi-
responsibilities, cation and their unique array of skills and roles with-
in educational settings (Murray, 1995; Paisley &
school counselors McMahon, 2001). Although the roles of school
counselors are more clearly defined today than they
may be particularly were 20 years ago (Kendrick et al., 1994), expecta-
tions regarding their roles may vary greatly by insti-
susceptible to tution and across educators (Schmidt, 1999) and
have increased by virtue of the growing numbers of
experiencing students in school settings across the country
(Constantine et al., 2001). Role conflict and role
burnout. ambiguity are two potential stressors that many
school counselors experience with regard to their
multiple job tasks. Role conflict occurs when two or
more simultaneous and incompatible pressures exist
in such a way that compliance with one role com-
promises fulfilling others (Drury, 1984; Thompson
& Powers, 1983). Role ambiguity may occur when
school counselors are unsure of the roles and func-
tions that are professionally and institutionally
expected (Moracco, Butcke, & McEwen, 1984).
For example, school counselors who are assigned
clerical duties, teacher substitution, or other non-
counselor-related tasks might not feel that the exter-
nal expectations of their educational settings are
consistent with their own professional expectations
or training (Schmidt). Such sources of role strain
have been found to be negatively related to job sat-
56 ASCA | PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL COUNSELING
isfaction in school counselors (Thompson &
Powers).
Other organizational stressors also may represent
potential sources of burnout for school counselors.
For example, teachers, principals, and administrative
staff members may not possess favorable perceptions
of the school counseling profession, and these per-
ceptions may be evident in the assignment of non-
counselor-related duties (Kendrick et al., 1994;
Moracco et al., 1984; Parr, 1991). Furthermore,
school counselors may not be visible in leadership
roles in school settings, which can contribute to per-
ceptions of diminished credibility and worth (Drury,
1984). In addition to perceptions that education
professionals might not value school counselors or
the services they provide, technological advances in
counseling resources that are now available to stu-
dents (e.g., Web-based vocational assessments or
personality inventories) may make school counselors
feel obsolete (Drury), particularly those who are not
technologically proficient (Schmidt, 1999).
Considering the assortment of professional roles
and organizational stressors to which school coun-
selors may be exposed, the potential for burnout
may be high. C. Maslach and her colleagues (e.g.,
Maslach, 1978; Maslach & Florian, 1988; Maslach
& Jackson, 1981, 1984) conceptualized burnout as
a multidimensional stress reaction comprised of
three interrelated factors: emotional exhaustion (i.e.,
feeling drained of emotional energy); depersonaliza-
tion (i.e., social withdrawal and the development of
negative or apathetic views toward others); and
reduced personal accomplishment (i.e., deteriorated
sense of worth and dissatisfaction with prior success-
es). Burnout has been most strongly linked to
human service professions, such as nursing, educa-
tion, and mental health, which often entail intense
emotional interactions with a number of individuals
having a variety of concerns (Maslach & Jackson,
1981).
Although the literature on burnout has examined
its relevance to educators and mental health profes-
sionals, few published studies have explored its
importance to school counselors specifically. An
investigation comparing self-reported burnout and
role stress among school counselors, school psychol-
ogists, teachers, reading specialists, and school social
workers reported that school counselors endorsed
the highest role ambiguity and role conflict scores
and the second highest emotional exhaustion,
depersonalization, and reduced personal accom-
plishment scores (Pierson-Hubeny & Archambault,
1987).
A potential factor in preventing or moderating
burnout among school counselors may be social
support (Jupp & Shaul, 1991). Haddad (1998)
found that social support from family members and
colleagues promoted a sense of personal accomplish-
ment among a sample of school counselors in
Jordan. The conceptual literature on stress preven-
tion among school counselors has recommended
strategies related to social support seeking, including
networking with national, state, and local profes-
sional organizations; having in-house social support
groups for school counselors; consulting with col-
leagues; and educating the school community about
the roles and functions of school counselors
(Moracco et al., 1984; Parr, 1991). In addition to
potentially promoting a positive sense of profession-
al and social identity in school counselors, these
strategies may help to facilitate favorable perceptions
of school counselors by other school personnel. The
positive feelings that school counselors may have
about being members of a unique professional
group may be reflected in their perceptions of their
collective group identity (i.e., collective self-esteem),
which might be associated with lower perceived feel-
ings of burnout.
PURPOSES OF THE STUDY
The primary purpose of our study was to explore the
relationships between dimensions of collective self-
esteem and components of burnout in a random
sample of professional school counselors. A second-
ary purpose of this investigation was to determine
whether there were potential differences among the
respondents in dimensions of burnout by sex, geo-
graphic location of their work setting (i.e., urban,
suburban, rural, or “other”), and the number of
years employed as a school counselor (i.e., 0–9 years,
10–19 years, 20–29 years, or 30 or more years). In
light of these research purposes, we identified the
following hypotheses for this investigation:
1. Dimensions of collective self-esteem (i.e., private,
public, membership, and importance to identity)
will be significantly and negatively predictive of
emotional exhaustion and feelings of depersonal-
ization in school counselors.
2. Dimensions of collective self-esteem (i.e., private,
public, membership, and importance to identity)
will be significantly and positively predictive of
personal accomplishment in school counselors.
3. Because we were unsure about the role of demo-
graphic variables in relation to aspects of burnout
in our sample, we hypothesized that there would
be no significant differences in emotional exhaus-
tion, feelings of depersonalization, and feelings of
personal accomplishment among school counsel-
ors by sex, geographic location of work setting,
and number of years employed as a school coun-
selor.
METHOD
Potential participants were 1,000 practicing school
counselors who were randomly selected from a mail-
ing list of members of the American School
Counselor Association. These individuals were asked
to participate in an anonymous study examining
their perceptions about their professional identity
and experiences. Interested participants completed a
questionnaire packet consisting of the Collective
Self-Esteem Scale (Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992), the
Maslach Burnout Inventory–Educators Survey
(Maslach & Jackson, 1986), and a brief demograph-
ic questionnaire. No incentives were used to solicit
participation in the study, and participants were told
that they would be provided with the study’s results
upon request. A total of 538 school counselors
chose to participate in the study (54% response rate),
but 5 of these participants were excluded from data School counselors
analyses because of insufficient or missing data.
The resultant 415 (77.9%) women and 118 represent an
(22.1%) men who were included in the study ranged
in age from 25 to 66 years (M = 42.59, SD = 8.12). important social
By racial or ethnic background, 410 (76.9%) of the
participants were White American, 52 (9.8%) were group by virtue of
Black American, 31 (5.8%) were Asian or Asian
American, 23 (4.3%) were Latino, 6 (1.1%) were their strong
American Indian, 7 (1.3%) were biracial, and 4 (.8%)
identified as “other.” In terms of educational back- professional
ground, 456 (85.6%) held master’s degrees, 47
(8.8%) of the counselors had bachelor’s degrees, 26 identification and
(4.9%) held doctoral degrees, and 4 (.8%) held
“other” degrees (e.g., educational specialist). By their unique array
location of school environment, 266 (49.9%) of the
counselors were employed in urban schools, 156 of skills and roles
(29.3%) were in suburban schools, 72 (13.5%) were
in rural schools, and 39 (7.3%) were in “other” within educational
schools. In terms of number of years as a counselor,
119 respondents (22.3%) reported 0–9 years, 218 settings.
participants (40.9%) reported 10–19 years, 177
respondents (33.2%) reported 20–29 years, and 19
participants (3.6%) reported 30 years or more.
Instruments
Demographic questionnaire. Respondents were
asked to indicate their sex, age, race or ethnicity,
educational background, years of experience as a
school counselor (i.e., 0–9 years, 10–19 years,
20–29 years, or 30 or more years), and geographic
location of employment setting (i.e., urban, subur-
ban, rural, or “other”).
Collective Self-Esteem Scale (CSES). The CSES
(Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992) is a 16-item, 7-point
(1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree) Likert-
type scale designed to assess self-esteem as it relates
to belonging to a specific social group. The CSES
consists of four subscales measuring four dimensions
9:1 OCTOBER 2005 | ASCA 57
 of collective self-esteem. The first subscale, private
collective self-esteem, measures the degree to which
individuals feel positively about their social group.
Public collective self-esteem, the second subscale,
assesses individuals’ beliefs about the extent to
which others feel positively about their social group.
The third subscale, membership collective self-
esteem, measures the degree to which individuals
think that they are good members of their social
group. Finally, the importance to identity collective
self-esteem subscale assesses the extent to which
individuals believe that their social group is an
important part of their self-concept. Higher scores
are associated with higher levels of collective self-
esteem in each domain.
In validation studies, Luhtanen and Crocker
(1992) reported adequate internal consistency relia-
bilities ranging from .71 to .88 for the CSES sub-
scales, and a test-retest reliability coefficient of .68
for the total scale. Construct validation studies
regarding the CSES have revealed a four-factor
structure through both exploratory and confirmato-
ry factor analytical techniques (Luhtanen &
Crocker). In addition, CSES scores have been relat-
ed to various measures of personal self-esteem and
psychological well-being (e.g., Bettencourt,
Charlton, Eubanks, Kernahan, & Fuller, 1999;
Crocker et al., 1994). In the present study, CSES
items were revised to refer specifically to respon-
dents’ social group membership as a school coun-
selor. This type of modification has been used suc-
cessfully by previous researchers (e.g., Constantine
et al., 2002; Crocker et al.; Verkuyten & Lay, 1998).
In our study, Cronbach’s alphas of .79, .77, .76, and
.63 were obtained for the private, public, member-
ship, and importance to identity collective self-
esteem subscales, respectively.
Maslach Burnout Inventory–Educators Survey
(MBI-ES). The MBI-ES (Maslach & Jackson,
1986) is a 22-item, 6-point (0 = never, 6 = every day)
Likert-type measure of school counselors’ attitudes
and feelings toward their job. It consists of three
subscales that assess identified components of
burnout: emotional exhaustion (i.e., feelings of
fatigue that result from one’s emotional energies
being drained); depersonalization (i.e., developing
negative and unfeeling attitudes toward others); and
personal accomplishment (i.e., feelings of self-com-
petence and satisfaction with achievements). High
scores on the emotional exhaustion and depersonal-
ization subscales indicate high degrees of burnout,
whereas a high score on the personal accomplish-
ment subscale is associated with a low degree of
burnout.
For the emotional exhaustion subscale, low scores
range from 0 to 17, moderate scores range from 18
to 29, and high scores are 30 and over. On the
58 ASCA | PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL COUNSELING
depersonalization subscale, low scores range from 0
to 5, moderate scores range from 6 to 11, and high
scores are 12 and over. On the personal accomplish-
ment subscale, high scores range from 0 to 33, mod-
erate scores range from 34 to 39, and low scores are
40 and over. (Because this scale is reverse-scored,
higher feelings of personal accomplishment are asso-
ciated with lower levels of burnout.) In previous
studies, the MBI-ES subscales have had reliability
coefficients ranging from .76 to .90, and sufficient
validity support for the MBI-ES has been reported
(e.g., Maslach & Jackson, 1986). In our investiga-
tion, Cronbach’s alphas of .82, .82, and .86 were
calculated for the emotional exhaustion, depersonal-
ization, and personal accomplishment subscales,
respectively.
RESULTS
The means, standard deviations, and intercorrela-
tions of the study’s variables are reported in Table 1.
To test the first two hypotheses of this study, we
conducted a multivariate multiple regression analysis
that examined the relationships between four com-
ponents of collective self-esteem (i.e., private, pub-
lic, membership, and importance to identity) and
three dimensions of burnout (i.e., emotional
exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accom-
plishment). In our investigation, the predictor vari-
ables were the four CSES subscales and the criterion
variables were the three subscales of the MBI-ES.
Results of this analysis revealed that the overall pro-
portion of the variance in the MBI-ES subscales
accounted for by the four CSES subscales was sig-
nificant—Pillai’s trace = .08, F (12, 1584) = 3.48, p
< .001, 2m = .03, where 2m is the multivariate
effect size.
Because multivariate significance was reached at
the .05 level, follow-up univariate analyses were
conducted. Results of follow-up univariate analyses
to determine the unique relationships between the
predictor and criterion variables revealed that higher
private collective self-esteem was associated with
greater feelings of personal accomplishment, F(1,
528) = 9.61, p < .01, 2 = .02. In addition, higher
public collective self-esteem was related to lower
emotional exhaustion, F(1, 528) = 6.69, p < .05, 2
= .01, and higher feelings of personal accomplish-
ment, F(1, 528) = 6.04, p < .05, 2 = .01. Further-
more, higher importance to identity collective self-
esteem was related to lower feelings of depersonal-
ization, F(1, 528) = 4.68, p < .05, 2 = .01, and
higher feelings of personal accomplishment, F(1,
528) = 6.45, p < .05, 2 = .01. It is important to
note that because each of the predictor variables
accounted for very little variance in the criterion
variables, much of the variance in burnout is left
 Table 1. Means, Standard Deviations, and Intercorrelations of the Study’s Variables
Variables M SD
1. CSES private subscale 5.37 1.06
2. CSES public subscale 5.18 .98
3. CSES membership subscale 5.07 1.09
4. CSES importance 4.87 .96
to identity subscale
5. MBI-ES emotional 18.21 7.47
exhaustion subscale
6. MBI-ES depersonalization 10.28 3.78
subscale
7. MBI-ES personal
accomplishment subscale 26.04 8.32
Note. CSES = Collective Self-Esteem Scale (Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992); MBI-ES = Maslach Burnout
Inventory–Educators Survey (Maslach & Jackson, 1986). The means for the CSES correspond to the Likert-
type scale. Higher scores on each subscale correspond to greater amounts of the given variable.
*p < .05. **p < .01.
unexplained by dimensions of collective self-esteem.
To address the third hypothesis of this investiga-
tion, we conducted three multivariate analyses of
variance (MANOVAs) to determine whether there
were significant differences with regard to the
dimensions of burnout by sex, geographic location
of work setting, and number of years employed as a
school counselor. In the first analysis, which
explored potential sex differences in components of
burnout, no significant differences between women
and men were found—Pillai’s trace = .01, F(3, 529)
= 2.38, p > .05. In the second analysis, which exam-
ined differences in dimensions of burnout by geo-
graphic location of work setting, the overall
MANOVA was significant—Pillai’s trace = .18, F(9,
1587) = 10.90, p < .001.
Because of unequal cell sizes across location of
work settings, we analyzed post-hoc differences
using Dunnett’s C tests. Results of these follow-up
analyses revealed that school counselors employed in
urban environments reported significantly higher
emotional exhaustion scores (M = 20.77, SD = 6.30)
than did their peers employed in suburban (M =
16.08, SD = 7.61), rural (M = 14.40, SD = 7.60),
and other environmental settings (M = 16.23, SD =
8.15) [F(3, 529) = 24.66, p < .001]. Furthermore,
school counselors working in urban settings
endorsed significantly higher feelings of depersonal-
ization (M = 11.29, SD = 3.04) than did school
counselors in suburban (M = 9.21, SD = 4.25), rural
(M = 9.44, SD = 4.07), and other (M = 9.20, SD =
4.06) environments [F(3, 529) = 13.67, p < .001].
2 3 4 5 6 7
.62** .59** .54** –.14** –.01 –.02
— .58** .48** –.19** –.06 .10*
— .54** –.13** –.02 .05
— –.14** –.09* .11*
— .43** –.57**
— –.50**
—
In the third MANOVA, which examined potential
differences in components of burnout by number of
years employed as a school counselor, the overall
omnibus equation was significant—Pillai’s trace =
.03, F(9, 1587) = 2.10, p < .05. Because of unequal
cell sizes across years of school counseling experi-
ence, we examined post-hoc differences using
Dunnett’s C tests. Results of these post-hoc analyses
indicated that school counselors with 20–29 years of
experience endorsed significantly higher feelings of
depersonalization (M = 10.75, SD = 3.52) than did
their peers who reported 0–9 years of experience (M
= 9.49, SD = 4.19) [F(3, 529) = 3.38, p < .05]. Fur-
thermore, school counselors working 30 years or
more reported significantly lower feelings of person-
al accomplishment (M = 20.68, SD = 8.20) than did
their counterparts who had been counseling 0–9
years (M = 26.92, SD = 8.69) and 10–19 years (M =
26.37, SD = 7.85) [F(3, 529) = 3.39, p < .05].
DISCUSSION
We investigated the relationships between four
dimensions of collective self-esteem (i.e., private,
public, membership, and importance to identity)
and three components of burnout (i.e., emotional
exhaustion, depersonalization, and feelings of per-
sonal accomplishment) in a large sample of profes-
sional school counselors. The school counselors in
our study came from a variety of geographical envi-
ronments and reported a wide range of years em-
ployed in their profession. Prior to discussing the
9:1 OCTOBER 2005 | ASCA 59
 findings, it is important to note that the mean scores
of two of the MBI-ES subscales (i.e., emotional
exhaustion and depersonalization) fell in the moder-
ate range (see Table 1), suggesting that many mem-
bers of our sample are experiencing some symptoms
of burnout. However, the scores for the personal
accomplishment subscale fell in the high range.
Taken together, these findings indicate a complex
picture of school counselors who, despite some
symptoms of burnout, experience a positive sense of
professional pride and accomplishment in the work-
place. Because school counselors are in the unique
position of caring for many students’ psychosocial
needs while simultaneously attempting to strike a
healthy balance in their own lives, it seems vital that
The primary ongoing self-monitoring and other monitoring of
school counselors’ responsibilities be instituted to
purpose of our avoid burnout experiences.
Regarding our multivariate multiple regression
study was to results, we found several significant, but very small,
statistical effects regarding the relationship between
explore the components of collective self-esteem and burnout.
This phenomenon leaves much of the variance in
relationships burnout unexplained by dimensions of collective
self-esteem. Nonetheless, we found that higher pri-
between vate collective self-esteem was associated with high-
er feelings of personal accomplishment. This finding
dimensions of suggests that school counselors’ internal positive
perceptions of their social group could contribute to
collective self- feelings of professional accomplishment in their
work environments.
esteem and In addition, results indicated that school coun-
selors with higher public collective self-esteem
components of reported lower levels of emotional exhaustion and
higher feelings of personal accomplishment. Hence,
burnout in a the extent to which school counselors believe that
others positively perceive their social group might
random sample of help them from becoming emotionally drained and
experiencing deteriorated self-competence and dis-
professional school satisfaction. We also found that higher importance
to identity collective self-esteem was related to lower
counselors. feelings of depersonalization and higher feelings of
personal accomplishment. It appears that school
counselors’ views of their social group membership
might represent vital parts of how they perceive
themselves both professionally and personally. As
stated earlier, however, it is important to underscore
that dimensions of collective self-esteem contributed
only a minor amount of the variance to dimensions
of burnout, as indicated by our minimal effect sizes.
Findings also revealed that school counselors
working in urban school settings reported signifi-
cantly higher levels of emotional exhaustion and
feelings of depersonalization than did their counter-
parts in suburban, rural, and other settings. School
counselors employed in urban environments often
are exposed to unique issues that may not be found
60 ASCA | PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL COUNSELING
as readily in other school settings. For example, the
growing cultural diversity of school systems in large
cities has mandated that school counselors become
increasingly proficient in addressing the complex
needs of students who may be racially or ethnically
different from themselves, and who may have varied
expectations about how school counselors can best
meet their psychosocial issues (Constantine et al.,
2001).
Furthermore, urban children and youth, who
often live in environments in which overcrowding,
poverty, and crime are high, have been found to
encounter greater levels of stress in their milieus and
to present with more severe mental health problems
than do suburban or rural youth (Weist et al., 2000).
As a result, it is possible that some urban school
counselors may be feeling stressed about the distinct
challenges that are present in their school settings
(Clemente & Collison, 2000; Hunter-Boykin,
Thompson, Evans, & Brown, 1993), and such stress
ultimately could result in burnout if not addressed
sufficiently. Hence, it seems critical that urban
school counselors obtain adequate levels of profes-
sional and personal support in order to guard against
extreme feelings of stress and burnout.
Our results also indicated that school counselors
who had been counseling for 30 or more years
reported lower feelings of personal accomplishment
than did their peers who had been counseling for
0–9 years and 10–19 years. Moreover, we found that
school counselors with 20–29 years of experience
reported higher feelings of depersonalization than
did their counterparts with 0–9 years of experience.
The aforementioned findings are consistent with
Jupp and Shaul’s (1991) study, which reported that
school counselors with longer employment histories
tended to express higher levels of burnout than did
their counterparts who were employed for shorter
periods of time. However, these researchers also
found that school counselors employed for longer
periods of time often perceived more support from
their counseling peers, and this form of support was
associated with diminished burnout. Thus, collective
professional and social support from other school
counselors, along with social support by school
teachers and administrators, might be especially
helpful to more experienced school counselors in
reducing feelings of burnout. In addition, receiving
peer supervision or consultation regarding profes-
sional issues within a group format may provide
these counselors with support and validation for
their work within school systems.
Limitations
There are several potential limitations of our investi-
gation. First, generalizability of the findings is cau-
tioned because the participants may differ from
school counselors who did not respond to the study.
Second, our sample was predominantly White and
female. Although school counselors in the United
States are predominantly White, it may be important
for future researchers to assess similar variables in
school counselors who represent a wider range of
racial and ethnic backgrounds. Another potential
limitation of our study is that a very small amount of
the variance in burnout was accounted for by dimen-
sions of collective self-esteem, leaving much of the
variance in burnout still unexplained in this study.
With regard to our investigation, it also is possible
that some participants were cued to the research
intent. That is, they may have responded differently
to some or all of the study’s instruments based on
their presumed knowledge about what was being
assessed or in ways that did not reflect their actual
attitudes and beliefs.
Implications for Training
Considering potential contributing factors to
burnout in practicing school counselors, it is possi-
ble that current academic training methods may not
sufficiently prepare trainees for the challenges that
await them in the school setting. Many school coun-
selor training programs are located within mental
health counselor training programs that may offer
only one or two courses pertaining specifically to
school counseling. In fact, a recent study (i.e.,
Pérusse, Goodnough, & Noël, 2001a) indicated
that only about 30% of sampled school counselor
programs required trainees to take a course in school
counseling. Furthermore, textbooks used in some
school counselor programs may not adequately
address the stressors that school counselors
encounter in the real world. Ironically, these text-
books might promote idealistic views among
trainees that ultimately could contribute to profes-
sional burnout because of these students’ lack of
preparedness to deal with the numerous and some-
times competing roles they might play in school set-
tings (Schmidt, 1999).
School counselor training programs should
expose their trainees to up-to-date and context-spe-
cific counseling skills, such as group, family, sub-
stance abuse, and crisis counseling, with regard to
working with students who have mental health
problems of increasing severity (Barker & Satcher,
2000; Kendrick et al., 1994). This issue might be
particularly salient to the experiences of school
counselors who plan to work in urban settings, in
light of the levels of burnout they seem to experi-
ence relative to school counselors employed in sub-
urban, rural, and “other” settings. Furthermore,
school counselor trainees who develop competence
in facilitating small and large groups might be able
to attend more efficiently to large student caseloads
in school settings (Drury, 1984; Schmidt, 1999),
which could reduce their overall work stress.
Academic training programs also might actively
encourage school counselor trainees to develop net-
working skills, such as lobbying, grant writing, and
outreach to state, local, and national organizations,
as ways to increase their professional visibility and
credibility and to develop peer groups with whom
positive and negative experiences as school coun-
selors might be shared.
Conclusions
In recent decades, student enrollments across school
systems in the United States have grown tremen-
dously and budgetary limitations have constrained
the hiring of additional school counselors; these
phenomena have resulted in greater student-to- Taken together, the
counselor ratios and increased work-role demands of
school counselors (Freeman & Coll, 1997). More- findings indicate a
over, as school enrollments and work expectations
have increased, the “face” of the school population complex picture of
in the United States has become more culturally
diverse, and school counselors have been challenged school counselors
to become better prepared to work with students
representing diverse cultural backgrounds (Constan- who, despite some
tine et al., 2001). Some school counselors may feel
ill-prepared to work within the context of the chang- symptoms of
ing expectations and demographics of their school
systems, which could contribute to work-related burnout, experience
stress and feelings of burnout (Kendrick et al.,
1994). a positive sense of
Thus, in order to reduce the possibility of
burnout, practicing school counselors might benefit professional pride
from engaging in professional development activi-
ties, such as taking continuing education courses and
and attending workshops related to needed areas of
competence, to increase feelings of work-related accomplishment in
efficacy in their settings. Furthermore, participating
in professional support groups might assist some the workplace.
school counselors in augmenting their collective
group identity, fostering perceived social support,
and decreasing or managing symptoms of burnout
related to their multiple roles and expectations. ❚
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