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Examining the relationship between perceived worry and self-efficacy in NSW department of education school counsellors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2022

Sara L. Donald Open the ORCID record for Sara L. Donald [Opens in a new window]  and
Emma E. Walter
Sara L. Donald*
Affiliation:
School of Education, Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
Emma E. Walter
Affiliation:
School Counselling Service, NSW Department of Education, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia School of Psychology, Western Sydney University, New South Wales, Australia
*
*Corresponding author: Email: sara.donald@det.nsw.edu.au
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Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between perceived worry and self-efficacy, with particular attention to job role in Australian school counsellors working in the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education. Ninety-eight school counsellors (N = 98, Mage = 44.97, SDage = 10.89; 92% female) comprised the sample group, stratified across three job roles: Senior Psychologist Education, School Counsellor, and School Counselling in Training. Data collection tools were the Penn State Worry Questionnaire and the Psychologist and Counsellor Self-Efficacy Scale. Data were analysed using the Pearson product-moment correlation and a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). We found a weak negative association between perceived worry and self-efficacy of significance (p = .018). Findings demonstrated a significant effect (p < .001) of job role on the combined dependent variables although the effect was small. Examination of the between-subjects effects demonstrated that role had a significant effect for self-efficacy, but not for worry. Post-hoc analyses showed that individuals in roles of seniority reported higher self-efficacy and lower perceived worry when compared with counsellors in training. Future studies would likely benefit from a more comprehensive consideration of demographic data to ascertain other variables that may be contributing to levels of worry and self-efficacy.

Keywords

School counsellorworryself-efficacy
Type
Original Article
Information
Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , December 2022 , pp. 148 - 158
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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