Relationship between school counselors' self-advocacy skills and the implementation level of comprehensive school counseling programs

Comprehensive school counseling program implementation is the primary task of school counselors. However, role ambiguity regarding the role of school counselors has resulted in misconceptions about their professional responsibilities among administrators, parents, students, and teachers and has inhibited school counselors’ ability to implement comprehensive school counseling programs. Self-advocacy is a key tenet of closing the lack of consistency between school counseling practice and anticipated roles, as well as maintaining relevant school counselor activities within a school. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between school counselor self-advocacy skills and the level of school counseling program implementation at K–12 schools across the United States. A national survey was conducted based on the School Counseling Self-Advocacy Questionnaire, which was used to measure the skills that enable school counselors to advocate for their roles and programs, and the School Counselor Program Implementation Survey, which was used to measure the level of school counseling program implementation. Overall, this research demonstrated that there is a significant relationship between school counselors’ self-advocacy skills and the level of school counseling program implementation at K-12 schools across the United States. The study results suggest that implications exist for professional school counselors and other professionals who work in the education field who are responsible for comprehensive school counseling program implementation.