TPC Journal-V6, Issue 4- FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor /Volume 6, Issue 4 352 finding from this investigation was that the perceived stress correlated with burnout with a large effect size (Sink & Stroh, 2006); however, perceived stress did not have a statistically significant contribution to school counselors’ direct counseling activities, direct curriculum activities, and percentage of time at work providing direct services to students. Figure 1. Final hypothesized structural model depicting the relationship between school counselors’ ( N = 926) perceived stress, burnout, and direct student services. Discussion This study examined the relationship between school counselors’ reported burnout, perceived stress and frequency of direct student services. The findings indicated burnout was a statistically significant contributor to the frequency of direct counseling services (β = -.35; medium effect size) and direct curriculum services (β = -.22; small to medium effect size). Furthermore, the findings identified that burnout was a significant contributor to the participants’ report of the percentage of time they spend on their job working directly with students (β = -.24; small to medium effect size). Although the results should be interpreted with some level of caution, we found that burnout also had a statistically significant relationship to frequency of direct student services with increased levels of burnout relating to lower levels of direct student services. Nonetheless, these findings are not surprising considering the literature on burnout emphasizes the important role burnout plays on the effort one places on their job, with individuals presenting with higher burnout typically having lower investment interest in their job (Garman, Corrigan, & Morris, 2002; Landrum, Knight, & Flynn, 2012; Maslach, 2003). While the findings support the literature on the role of burnout, they also bring attention to the possibility that burnout does not have a strong relationship to school counselors’ facilitation of direct counseling services as noted by the small effect size.