Stress and Work-Task Satisfaction: School Counselors' Perspective

Abstract

The study’s first purpose was to give school counselors a “voice” regarding their perceived stress. The second purpose was to investigate the relationship between school counselors’ work satisfaction across 12 counselor-related activities and perceived stress as measured by the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10). A question about stressors and the variables of gender, age, prior teaching experience, years of experience as a school counselor, school setting, and caseload added definition to the study. This research attempted a census of all North Dakota’s school counselors who had practiced for the last 30 days prior to completing the survey. Initially, participants self-administered and self-selected the survey mode via a URL, QR code, or hyperlink; later, a paper option was offered. When asked about their stressors, 64.6% (n = 204) of the school counselors reported that their greatest stressors in the last 30 days were work-related. The PSS-10 average score was 13.55 on a scale of 0-32, indicating a low-moderate level of stress. As the years of prior teaching experience and experience as a school counselor increased, the perceived stress decreased. No relationship was found between the school counselors’ practice setting or caseload and their perceived stress. Overall, as school counselors’ work satisfaction decreased, school counselors’ perceived stress increased. This relationship was statistically significant for all twelve of the appropriate school counselor activities, but the strength of the relationships varied from a Spearman’s Rho of -.16 for classroom guidance to -.41 for individual academic advising. School counselors who were required to perform ASCA-defined inappropriate activities had a statistically significant, higher perceived stress score than school counselors who were not required to perform those activities. The results, limitations of this study, and recommendations for future research are discussed.