TPC Journal V8, Issue 1 - FULL ISSUE

36 The Professional Counselor | Volume 8, Issue 1 Participants worked in various settings: counseling agency (n = 177, 36%), private practice (n = 124, 25%), state and federal government (n = 47, 10%), hospital and clinic (n = 43, 9%), college setting (n = 35, 7%), not currently working as a counselor (n = 29, 6%), K–12 setting (n = 28, 6%), managed care (n = 7, 1%), unemployment (n = 3, <1%), and retired (n = 1, <1%). The average year of master’s graduation for participants was 2005 (SD = 6.16). Because it takes individuals seeking independent license as a counselor at least two years to complete their postgraduate supervision, we believe the average participant in this study had been an independently licensed counselor for eight years. Every participant held an independent license as a counselor by a state counseling licensure board. Dually licensed counselors comprised only 6% of the total participants. Data Collection Procedures Our universities’ HSIRBs approved the use of human research subjects and the specific questions asked of participants. Survey Monkey’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 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016), and confidence interval of +/- 5%. We selected a simple random sample of 2,496 participants from a total list of 66,143 independently licensed counselors from eight state counseling licensure boards in the United States (two states from each of the four ACA regions). When creating our simple random sample of 2,496 participants, we randomly selected 312 participants from each state counseling licensure board list to ensure capturing the same number of participants from each of the four ACA regions. Four hundred ninety-four participants completed the study, which resulted in a 20% response rate. Each participant received a postcard of explanation that included a link to a Survey Monkey questionnaire where they responded to four sections. Participants (a) reviewed and consented to the informed consent form on Survey Monkey, (b) answered questions about their demographics on Survey Monkey, (c) rated six Likert scale questions on Survey Monkey, and (d) had the option of providing their name and email address on the first author’s personal website to receive a $5 e-gift card to Amazon.com, Starbucks, or Target. By using Survey Monkey to collect study data and then directing participants to the first author’s website to store gift card requests, we maintained participant anonymity. Measure A search of the literature failed to yield examples of existing measures about independently licensed counselors’ views on CACREP training and state supervision standards to achieve independent counseling licensure. We, therefore, created a survey instrument to measure these constructs. The six Likert scale items stemmed from the standards of professional identity from ACA, AASCB, NBCC, and CACREP, as these professional counseling organizations form the foundation for counselor professional identity. Table 1 provides the verbatim text used. First, participants responded to one question focusing on clarity in articulating a professional counselor identity. Those responding with Never Clear scored a 0 and those responding with Always Clear scored a 5. For the following five scale questions, participants who responded Extremely Unimportant scored a 0 and those who responded Extremely Important scored a 5. These five scale questions covered the topics of graduate and postgraduate supervision being limited to independently licensed counselors as required by many states in the AASCB; counselor educators having a professional counselor identity as stipulated by the ACA Code of Ethics and the 2016 CACREP Standards; training counseling students in the history, philosophy, and values of the profession of counseling as outlined