School Counselors' Perceived Self-Efficacy for Addressing Bullying in the Elementary School Setting

Abstract

Bullying is a major issue facing school systems today. It is important to explore the extent to which school counselors feel confident in providing interventions to address bullying. This research study is designed to fill a gap in the current school counseling literature regarding our understanding of school counselors' self-efficacy to address bullying in elementary schools. The following research questions will guide the study:

1. What is the elementary school counselor's perceived self-efficacy for providing bullying interventions in an elementary school setting, as measured by the Counselor Self-Efficacy and Bullying Interventions Scale (CSBI)? 2. What is the elementary school counselor's perceived self-efficacy regarding his or her counseling skills as measured by the Counseling Self-Estimate Inventory (COSE)? 3. To what extent are (a) years of experience in the field, (b) years of training, (c) bullying-intervention training in graduate school, and (d) participation in professional development activities and/or in-services predictive of a counselor's self-efficacy for providing bullying interventions? Responses from 126 elementary school counselors employed at a large suburban school district in the Mid-Atlantic region were used to explore overall counselor self-efficacy and counselor self-efficacy related to bullying interventions. The Counseling Self-Estimate Inventory (COSE; Larson et al., 1992), and Counselor Self-Efficacy and Bullying Interventions Scale(CSBI adapted from King et al., 1999) were the instruments used to answer the research questions. Participants reported a high (M =185) overall self-efficacy as well as a high (M =71.2) self-efficacy for providing bullying interventions. However, only one variable, years of experience, was found to significantly predict efficacy expectations (B = 0.25, p <.01) and outcome values (B = 0.21, p <.05); none of the variables were found to significantly predict outcome expectations (r-squared=0.06, n.s).