TPC Journal V7, Issue 2 - FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor | Volume 7, Issue 2 139 and preferred activities that are considered outside the scope of school counseling practice, including clerical, administrative and fair share responsibilities. When considering the relationship between attachment anxiety and this discrepancy, which revealed a higher preference for performing these “other” activities, there are a few possible explanations. Perhaps anxiously attached counselors reporting a greater discrepancy on the “other” subscale find it more difficult to align their identity with the counseling professional identity model promoted by ASCA. Although these non-counseling activities do not align with ASCA recommendations, they are nevertheless expected and valued by supervisors. Research has suggested that anxiously attached individuals may tend to take on additional work obligations as a way to please others and tend to be motivated by approval of colleagues and supervisors (Hazan & Shaver, 1987). Additionally, anxiously attached workers seek close relationships with their colleagues and supervisors and have more difficulty resisting unreasonable demands in the workplace (Leiter, Day, & Price, 2015). Given that school administrators directly influence the assignment of inappropriate duties performed by school counselors, and that strong advocacy and leaderships skills are essential to negotiate an identity and role that is more aligned with ASCA recommendations (Cinotti, 2014), anxiously attached school counselors may find it more difficult to test those relationships and may instead endorse the identity expected by their supervisors. Indeed, the literature points out that school administrators perceive school counselors as operating mainly from an educator—versus a counselor—professional identity (Cinotti, 2014). There was a low variability in attachment scores of this particular sample (i.e., school counselors endorsed relatively high levels of self-efficacy and low levels of attachment insecurity), which could have contributed to the results of this research. Within the clinical training component of their education, school counselors are taught the importance of ongoing self-exploration and to develop awareness of their responses within the context of clinical practice. It is possible that education and training in the importance of self-awareness could interrupt effects on school counselor practice that are related to higher levels of attachment anxiety. Counselors in this sample consistently indicated that they preferred to spend more time in intervention activities that are in keeping with best practices and are related to positive outcomes for students and preferred to spend less time in non-counseling related activities. When compared to other research using the SCARS, they also reported engaging in fewer non-counseling activities. As performing non-counseling activities is associated with burnout in school counselors (Bardhoshi et al., 2014), this is a positive finding that might be reflective of the current direction of the profession. Study Limitations The potential for self-selection and social desirability bias was a limitation of this study. Only elementary school counselors who were ASCA members were invited to participate. It is possible that those members who did volunteer to participate may differ in a variety of ways from those individuals who did not respond. Given the $115 membership fee to join the association, it is possible that counselors from wealthier school districts, with higher salaries or access to a counseling budget assisting with the membership fee, are more heavily represented. School counselors who chose to become members of ASCA may vary distinctly in work-related performance, self-efficacy beliefs and attachment style than those counselors who chose not to become members of the association. ASCA members likely have more professional development opportunities and more exposure to information regarding best practices, which could impact both their self-efficacy beliefs and practice. Despite our use of multiple contact procedures to obtain an acceptable response rate, a limitation worth noting is the lower response rate. Lower response rates are often noted for online surveys (Dillman, Smyth, & Christian, 2014), including in the field of counseling (Granello &Wheaton, 2004).