7 TPC Digest School counselors have been called upon to design and implement culturally responsive comprehensive school counseling programs (CSCPs) that have a deliberate and systemic focus on facilitating optimal student outcomes and development. To this end, school counselors are expected to apply and enact a model of leadership in the process of program implementation. Yet, little is known about the relationship between school counselors’ program implementation and their leadership practices grounded in a specific model such as transformational leadership. Over the past several decades, emotional intelligence has been increasingly attributed as a critical trait and ability of individuals employing effective leadership. In a school counseling context, school counselors must be emotionally attuned with themselves and others to more effectively navigate the complexities of the systems in which they operate. Moreover, initial research has revealed that not only is emotional intelligence an antecedent of leadership, but that leadership, particularly transformational leadership, mediates the relationship between emotional intelligence and jobrelated behavior such as job performance. That said, emotional intelligence has not been examined in relation to school counselors’ CSCP implementation and service outcomes, even though CSCP implementation has been widely embraced as a core of the ASCA National Model. Likewise, although emotional intelligence has been studied with counseling practice and leadership separately, we identified no empirical research that has examined the mechanisms between school counselors’ emotional intelligence, transformational leadership practice, and outcomes of program implementation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether (a) school counselors’ emotional intelligence predicted their CSCP implementation; and (b) engagement in transformational leadership practices mediate, or partly explain, the relationship between emotional intelligence and CSCP implementation. Indeed, our results indicated that (a) school counselors’ emotional intelligence predicted their CSCP implementation; (b) school counselors’ emotional intelligence was positively associated with their engagement in transformational leadership; and (c) school counselors’ engagement in transformational leadership practices mediated the relationship between their emotional intelligence and CSCP implementation. Our study underscores the significant relationships between school counselors’ emotional intelligence, transformational leadership, and CSCP implementation. Based on our results in the present study, we explore implications of school counselor training, practice, and future research. Derron Hilts, PhD, NCC, is an assistant professor at Niagara University. Yanhong Liu, PhD, NCC, is an associate professor at Syracuse University. Melissa Luke, PhD, NCC, is a dean’s professor at Syracuse University. Correspondence may be addressed to Derron Hilts, 5795 Lewiston Rd, Niagara University, NY 14109, dhilts@niagara.edu. Derron Hilts, Yanhong Liu, Melissa Luke School Counselors’ Emotional Intelligence and Comprehensive School Counseling Program Implementation The Mediating Role of Transformational Leadership 7 | TPC Digest
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