School counselors' burnout, hope, and self-efficacy: A sequential regression analysis

Abstract

School counselors serve as frontline mental health professionals in schools. Although school counselors have a meaningful impact on students and the school climate, burnout negatively impacts school counselors’ self-efficacy. Hope may serve as a protective resource for school counselors’ self-efficacy. We conducted a sequential regression among 102 school counselors to determine if burnout and hope predicted their self-efficacy. While burnout predicted school counselors’ self-efficacy, hope contained the largest single explanative influence on self-efficacy scores. In this study, we provide evidence to support hope as a statistically significant and substantial protective factor for enhancing school counselor self-efficacy. We provide implications for school counseling practice, training, and research.