TPC Journal V7, Issue 2 - FULL ISSUE

192 The Professional Counselor | Volume 7, Issue 2 a master’s degree, obtained postgraduate clinical supervision and have a license to practice as a counselor without supervision in their state. Participants were 472 independently licensed counselors with a mean age of 41 ( range = 25–69, SD = 10.5) who completed all sections of the survey. A majority identified as female ( n = 392, 83%) and European American ( n = 396, 84%). Other races represented included: African American ( n = 24, 5%); Hispanic ( n = 19, 4%); Biracial ( n = 14, 3%); No Response ( n = 9, 2%); Asian American ( n = 5, 1%); and Native American ( n = 5, 1%). All participants were currently independently licensed as a counselor by a state counseling licensure board; however, 14 (3%) also were licensed marriage and family therapists, nine (2%) also were licensed psychologists, and five (1%) also were licensed social workers. Thankfully these individuals comprised only 6% of the total sample. We included these 28 dually licensed participants as they are independently licensed counselors in their state and represent independently licensed counselors in the United States. These individuals are tied to counselor professional identity in the United States as well as represent independently licensed counselors to other mental health professionals, legislators, clients and society. Participants worked in various settings: counseling agency ( n = 170, 36%), private practice ( n = 118, 25%), state and federal governments ( n = 47, 10%), hospitals and clinics ( n = 42, 9%), college settings ( n = 33, 7%), not currently working as a counselor ( n = 28, 6%), K–12 settings ( n = 24, 5%), managed care ( n = 5, 1%) and unemployed ( n = 5, 1%). The mean year of master’s graduation for participants was 2005 ( SD = 6.08). Data Collection Procedures SurveyMonkey’s (2016) power analysis calculator for survey designs identified a need for at least 384 survey respondents given a 95% confidence level, 135,000 population size (United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016) and confidence interval of +/- 5%. Two state counseling licensure board lists in each of the four ACA regions (eight states total) were randomly selected. The combined lists from the eight state counseling licensure boards generated a total list of 72,436 independently licensed counselors. A total stratified random sample of 2,144 participants was randomly selected with 268 participants selected from each state to ensure that the same number of participants were randomly selected from each of the four ACA regions. Because many counselors had moved from one of the eight states and were now practicing in another state, independently licensed counselors from 49 states and the District of Columbia were part of the final sample; North Dakota was not represented. Four hundred seventy-two participants completed the study, resulting in a 22% response rate. Each participant received a postcard of explanation that included a link to a webpage. Participants received one of eight URLs to participate in the study corresponding to the state issuing the independent counseling license to participants. On the webpage, participants responded to five sections when participating in the study. They (a) consented to the informed consent form, (b) answered questions about their demography, (c) rated one Likert scale question, (d) completed the open text box prompt and (e) had the option of providing their name and e-mail address to receive a $5 e-gift card to Amazon.com, Starbucks, or Target on a separate website. Measure A search of the literature failed to yield examples of existing measures relevant to the topic. We established content validity before the use of this new and untested instrument. Ten experts from the counseling field completed the instrument and rated items for clarity, representativeness and appropriateness. They rated the one Likert scale question asking about the participant’s clarity in consistently identifying professionally as a counselor as well as the open text box asking participants to write how they describe their occupational role as a professional counselor to others. These 10 experts had published on counselor professional identity or served on state or national counseling professional identity committees.