Self-Efficacy for Enhancing Students’ Career and College Readiness: A Survey of Professional School Counselors

Grounded in Bandura’s (1997) self-efficacy theory and Savickas’s (2011) career construction theory, this study examined school counselors’ beliefs about whether they can perform specific tasks related to supporting students’ career and college readiness. A national sample of school counselors (N = 2,047) completed the School Counselor Self-Efficacy for Enhancing Student Career and College Readiness Scale (Baker, Parikh-Foxx, & Martinez, 2017). Findings from a survey research design indicated that the extent of related training and the challenges associated with implementation of career service delivery were of concern to participants. Recommendations for training, practice, and further research are presented.     

‘Personality in Its Natural Habitat’ Revisited: A Pooled,Multi-sample Examination of the Relationships Between the Big Five Personality Traits and Daily Behaviour and Language Use

Past research using the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), an observational ambulatory assessment method for the real-world measurement of daily behaviour, has identified several behavioural manifestations of the Big Five domains in a small college sample (N = 96). With the use of a larger and more diverse sample of pooled data from N = 462 participants from a total of four community samples who wore the EAR from 2 to 6 days, the primary purpose of the present study was to obtain more precise and generalizable effect estimates of the Big Five–behaviour relationships and to re-examine the degree to which these relationships are gender specific. In an extension of the original article, the secondary purpose of the present study was to examine if the Big Five–behaviour relationships differed across two facets of each Big Five domain. Overall, while several of the behavioural manifestations of the Big Five were generally consistent with the trait definitions (replicating some findings from the original article), we found little evidence of gender differences (not replicating a basic finding from the original article). Unique to the present study, the Big Five–behaviour relationships were not always comparable across the two facets of each Big Five domain. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Beyond stigma: Understanding the “inclined abstainers” in military behavioral health-care utilization

ABSTRACT

Low treatment utilization in Soldiers with combat-related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an ongoing issue. The critical concern is to better understand factors which prohibit a Soldier with PTSD who wants help from seeking treatment (an “inclined abstainer”). A total of 537 Active Duty Soldiers on a US Army post completed a brief survey comprising psychometrically validated measures of stigma, behavioral health treatment beliefs, resilience, PTSD symptoms, and treatment intentions. Health-care records were prospectively tracked for 12 months to determine the relation between survey answers and treatment utilization. Sixty-three percent of those who acknowledged having a mental health-related problem did not seek help within a one-year period. Greater severity of PTSD symptoms was associated with an increased likelihood of behavioral health engagement. Soldiers that were classified as “inclined abstainers” were also more likely to endorse negative beliefs about psychotherapy and report higher levels of resilience as compared to “inclined actors.” These results suggest that a treatment model of PTSD emphasizing self-efficacy and self-reliance, while addressing negative beliefs about psychotherapy, may help promote engagement of behavioral health services among Active Duty Soldiers.