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The relationships of perceived mattering to others, jobrelated stress, and job satisfaction were examined for 388 elementary, middle, and high school counselors from across the United States. Participants completed the School Counselor Mattering Scale, the School Counselor Job-Stress Assessment, and several job satisfaction questions in order to assess perceptions of mattering to others at their schools and their job-related stress, and how these two constructs relate to school counselors' overall job satisfaction. Mattering to others at work and job-related stress accounted for 35% of the variance in job satisfaction for the total sample of school counselors; however, mattering did not moderate the relationship between job stress and job satisfaction. Results revealed that elementary school counselors experienced the greatest job satisfaction and the lowest levels of job-related stress, and high school counselors experienced the greatest job dissatisfaction and the greatest levels of job-related stress. Implications for school counselors' mattering and job satisfaction are considered.
Recently, the greater part of research in the area of school counseling has focused on the goal of providing accountable, intentional, and developmental guidance to «//students (Baker & Gerler, 2001). It is evident that for the better part of their work days, school counselors are expected to spend time promoting the emotional, social, and cognitive growth of students while offering both primary and secondary prevention strategies (Baker & Gerler). Further, the ASCA National Model® (American School Counselor Association, 2003) for school counseling programs suggests that school counselors be most concerned with the comprehensive needs of students (i.e., academic, career, and social/personal), and the ASCA role statement for school counselors recommends that counselors focus at least 70% of their time in direct service with students (ASCA, 1999). Despite school counselors' desires to help students, several studies have shown that school counselors' daily routines are not always consistent with the ASCA National Model and they are increasingly spending more time in noncounseling, administrative tasks (Bemak, 2000; Coll & Freeman, 1997; Hardesty & Dillard, 1994; Morse & Russell, 1988). Coupled with inconsistent daily tasks are the ever-emerging expectations from parents, teachers, school systems, administrators, students, and other community-member stakeholders.
Given the rising demands placed upon school counselors (Cunningham & Sandhu, 2000; Gysbers, Lapan, & Blair, 1999; Herr, 2001), school counselors are experiencing greater rates...