Multiple role balance, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction in women school counselors.

Many prior studies have reported that school counselors are at risk for experiencing mental health difficulties (eg., professional burnout) as a result of their participation in a wide variety of service-oriented roles. The majority of school counselors are women, which underscores the importance of examining these individuals' unique work-related and life experiences. As such, this study explored the relationships among multiple role balance, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction in a sample of 133 women school counselors. Findings revealed that multiple role balance and job satisfaction were each positively predictive of overall life satisfaction, even after accounting for the effects of age, years of experience as a school counselor, and location of school environment. Implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed.

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Because of their myriad roles and functions within school systems across the United States, many school counselors often are overwhelmed by their increasing job responsibilities and expectations (Kendrick, Chandler, & Hatcher, 1994; Paisley & McMahon, 2001; Parr, 1991). Role conflict and role ambiguity are two specific occupational stressors that school counselors experience with regard to the multiple roles they assume within schools (Butler & Constantine, 2005). Role conflict may arise when two or more simultaneous and incompatible expectations exist in such a way that compliance with a given role compromises fulfilling other roles (Drury, 1984; Thompson & Powers, 1983). Role ambiguity can result when school counselors are unclear about the roles and functions that are professionally and institutionally expected (Moracco, Butke, & McEwen, 1984).

Ross, Altmaier, and Russell (1989) noted that individuals employed in occupations providing services to others, such as school counselors, are at risk of experiencing job-related stress and potential burnout when faced with multiple professional role and organizational stressors. In an investigation comparing self-reported professional burnout and role stress among school counselors, school psychologists, teachers, reading specialists, and school social workers, Pierson-Hubeny and Archambault (1987) reported that school counselors endorsed the highest role ambiguity and role conflict scores and the second highest negative mental health scores. In a study of student service personnel employed in higher education school settings, Brewer and Clippard (2002) found that job satisfaction was negatively related to mental health syndromes. It appears that there is a need for greater understanding about the mental health experiences of school counselors in relation to their life (i.e., professional and personal) roles. Our study explores the relationships among multiple role balance, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction in a sample of women school counselors.

The majority of school counselors in the United States are women, which makes the population of women school counselors particularly vulnerable to issues of professional fatigue and burnout. Furthermore, because jobs in which the majority of employees are women frequently are subjected to lower pay and lower perceived status (Yoder, 2003), the perceptions of the importance and functions of women school counselors could be diminished. Such phenomena might have undue effects on these counselors' levels of job satisfaction and subsequent mental health. In an examination of job role perceptions of school mental health personnel, Agresta (2002) reported that female professionals experienced more role discrepancy than did male professionals. Because women school counselors are functioning not only within the context of their professional roles, but also are engaged in other life roles (e.g., friendship and family networks, being in a committed relationship, parenting, community activities, and academic endeavors), the effective balancing of various professional and personal roles presumably could play a salient role in their level of job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and overall well-being (Barnett & Hyde, 2001; Frone, 2000; Marks, 2001; Moen & Yu, 2000).

Most theories associated with the assumption of multiple roles tend to discuss such issues in relation to their negative effects on women's overall health and psychological well-being (e.g., Barnett, 1994; Frone, 2000; Martire, Parris Stephens, & Townsend, 2001). Role balance theory, however, suggests that it is typical for women to function within multiple roles throughout their lives, and what affects their mental and physical health is the degree to which they organize the system of roles within their lives (Marks, 2001). Role balance theory acknowledges that different roles might come into conflict with each other, but women's ability to adjust their entire system of roles to accommodate potential conflicts will likely produce more rewarding results (Marks & MacDermid, 1996). Thus, role balance is viewed as a general orientation across roles, rather than being role-specific, in which the organization of multiple roles contributes to overall mental and physical health functioning in women. Hence, it appears that women who are balanced or committed across roles, regardless of the number of roles they occupy, will likely report greater life satisfaction and mental health (Marks & MacDermid; Perry-Jenkins, Repetti, & Crouter, 2000). As applied to women school counselors, a better understanding of how multiple role balance issues might relate to the life satisfaction of this population would be fruitful.

Despite changing societal attitudes concerning gender roles, a disproportionate amount of household and child-care responsibilities continue to be placed on women's shoulders, even when the}, hold full-time employment (Yoder, 2003). Prior investigators have reported that women balance multiple roles differently than do men and that women in the workplace are often mothers who face personal and societal ambivalence about the desire to succeed as both a professional and a parent (Marks, 2001; Martire et al., 2001). Thus, the potential multiple role balance issues that women school counselors could face within the context of their jobs might not only relate to their perceived levels of job satisfaction (Duffus, 1998), but also may permeate to broader role balance issues within their personal lives (Moen & Yu, 2000). For example, a woman school counselor might find that her role as a romantic partner includes aspects of her role as a counselor and, at the same time, her role as a school counselor may overlap with her role as romantic partner.

Another phenomenon that may affect the job satisfaction experiences of women school counselors relates to administrators, teachers, and students' perceptions of these counselors' work roles. Specifically, school counselors may grapple with some individuals' perception that they function as "glorified administrative assistants" who perform various clerical duties such as student record keeping, class registration, and test administration (Ribak-Rosenthal, 1994). Furthermore, within some school settings, school counselors are expected to serve as substitute teachers and engage in other non-counselor-related tasks, which often are incompatible with their own professional expectations or training (Kuranz, 2002; Schmidt, 1999). Engagement in such roles not only may be negatively related to job satisfaction in this population (Fitch, Newby, Ballestero, & Marshall, 2001; Sowa, May, & Niles, 1994; Thompson & Powers, 1983), but also may play a significant role in their overall satisfaction with life.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The aforementioned issues collectively make a compelling case for exploring women school counselors' perceptions of their ability to balance multiple professional and personal roles, their job satisfaction, and their general life satisfaction. Thus, the primary purpose of this investigation was to determine the extent to which multiple role balance and job satisfaction were predictive of life satisfaction in a sample of women school counselors. We proposed the following hypothesis for our investigation: Greater multiple role balance ability and greater job satisfaction scores each would be associated with higher overall life satisfaction in women school counselors.

METHOD

Questionnaire packets were mailed to 250 practicing women school counselors who were randomly selected from a mailing list exclusively comprised of female members of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA). These women were asked to participate in an anonymous study examining their perceptions about their job and their overall mental health. Interested participants completed a questionnaire packet consisting of the Role Balance Scale (RBS; Marks, 1994), the Job Satisfaction Blank-Revised (JSB-R; Crutchfield & Borders, 1997), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1988), and a brief demographic questionnaire. No incentives were used to solicit participation in the study, and participants were told that they would be provided with the study's results upon request. A total of 138 women school counselors chose to participate in the study (54% response rate), but 2 of these participants were excluded from data analyses because of insufficient or missing data. Thus, the final number of individuals included in the study was 133.

The 133 women in this investigation ranged in age from 24 to 61 years (M= 39.76, SD = 9.42). By racial or ethnic background, 107 (80.5%) of the women were White American, 12 (9.0%) were Black American, 10 (7.5%) were Asian American, and 4 (3.0%) were Latina. In terms of educational background, 111 (83.5%) of the school counselors held master's degrees, 17 (12.8) had bachelor's degrees, and 5 (3.8%) held doctoral degrees. By location of school environment, 62 (46.6%) of the women school counselors were employed in urban schools, 53 (39.8%) were in suburban schools, and 18 (13.5%) were in rural schools. Participants also reported a mean of 12.41 years of school counseling experience (SD = 9.01, range = 1-38 years).

Instruments

Demographic questionnaire. Respondents were asked to indicate their sex, age, race or ethnicity, educational background, number of years of experience as a school counselor, and geographic location of employment setting (i.e., urban, suburban, or rural).

RBS. The PBS (Marks, 1994) is an eight-item, 5-point (1 = "strongly disagree," 5 = "strongly agree"), Likert-type instrument that assesses the importance of different roles in individuals' lives in relation to each other. Because role balance is a complex construct that is challenging to measure, the RBS is intended to tap into individuals' affective and cognitive structures that help them to regulate their system of roles (Marks & MacDermid, 1996). RBS items include "I am pretty good at keeping different parts of my life in balance; I generally don't let things slide" and "Everything I do feels special to me; nothing stands out as more important or more valuable than anything else." Scores range from 8 to 40, and higher scores are associated with higher perceived role balance ability. In the original sample, the Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the RBS was .68 (Marks). Marks (2001) recently revised the RBS to include only four of the eight original items, which were the items deemed to have the highest factor loadings in a previous study (i.e., Marks & MacDermid). In the current investigation, a Cronbach's alpha of .76 was computed for the eight-item scale.

JSB-R. The JSB-R (Crutchfield & Borders, 1997) is a four-item, 7-point (1 = "I hate it," 7 = "I love it"), Likert-type scale that measures global job satisfaction. The version of the JSB-R used in this study also was used in Crutchfield and Borders' investigation and was adapted from the Job Satisfaction Blank (JSB; Hoppock, 1977). JSB-R scores range from 4 to 28, with higher scores corresponding to greater job satisfaction. According to Wiggins and Moody (1983), high job satisfaction scores are those that are greater than 23, average job satisfaction scores fall within the 16-22 range, and low satisfaction scores are those that are 15 and below. Hoppock reported a split-half reliability coefficient of .87 for the JSB. The JSB-R has been reported to be a brief, reliable, and valid measure that has been used successfully with school counselors (e.g., Crutchfield & Borders). A Cronbach's alpha of .69 was calculated for the JSB-R in the present study.

SWLS. The SWLS (Diener et al., 1985) is a five-item, 7-point (1 = "strongly disagree," 7 = "strongly agree"), Likert-type instrument that measures individuals' perceptions about their overall satisfaction with life. Total SWLS scores range from 5 to 35, with higher scores being associated with greater life satisfaction in general. In the validation sample, the SWLS evidenced good internal consistency reliability (i.e., .87) and good test-retest reliability (i.e., .82), and it was found to be positively correlated with other measures of subjective well-being and negatively associated with psychopathology scales. In the current investigation, a Cronbach's alpha of .91 was computed for the SWLS.

RESULTS

Because of the relatively small numbers of women school counselors of color in our sample, in comparison to the White respondents, we did not assess for possible differences in the study's variables by race or ethnicity. However, because of the wide range of diversity among the sample in terms of age, years of school counseling experience, and location of school environment (i.e., urban, suburban, and rural), we wanted to display the relationships of these demographic variables to the primary variables of interest to the investigation. Thus, the means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations of the demographic and primary variables are displayed in Table 1.

We attempted to account for the effects of the demographic variables in relation to life satisfaction prior to exploring the extent to which multiple role balance and job satisfaction would predict life satisfaction. Hence, we conducted a hierarchical regression analysis. We first created dummy codes for the location of school environment variable because it was categorical and consisted of three distinct levels. The urban location environment was coded as zero, serving as the constant. We then entered all of the demographic variables (i.e., age, years of experience as a school counselor, and location of school environment) into the first step of the hierarchical regression analysis. The RBS and JSB-R scores then were entered into the second step of the analysis. The SWLS scores served as the outcome or criterion variable for this analysis.

Table 2 provides a summary of the hierarchical regression analysis for variables predicting life satisfaction for women school counselors. Results of the hierarchical regression analysis revealed that none of the demographic variables accounted for a significant amount of the variance in women school counselors' life satisfaction scores, F (4, 128) = .85, p > .05, [R.sup.2] = .03 (adjusted [R.sup.2] = .01). After controlling for respondents' age, years of school counseling experience, and location of" school environment, we found that role balance and job satisfaction scores each accounted for significant portions of the variance in women school counselors' satisfaction with life scores, [R.sup.2] change = .38, F (6, 126) change = 14.57, p < .001, [R.sup.2] = .41 (adjusted [R.sup.2] = .38). Specifically, higher levels of role balance and job satisfaction were each uniquely predictive of greater overall life satisfaction for women school counselors.

DISCUSSION

School counselors are employed in a variety of" settings, but they share the common goal of helping students with various educational, career, and psychosocial issues. Although these professionals are in the vital position of caring for students' mental health needs, they may not always be cognizant of the need to maintain a healthy balance in their own lives so as to avoid undue job stress or burnout (Butler & Constantine, 2005; Sowa et al., 1994). In our study investigating the relationships among women school counselors' multiple role balance, job satisfaction, and overall life satisfaction, we found that greater multiple role balance ability was associated with greater satisfaction with life. Thus, women school counselors' ability to effectively manage multiple roles in their lives seems beneficial to their overall psychological well-being.

Barnett and Hyde (2001) discussed several processes that contribute to the beneficial effects of adopting multiple roles, including opportunities for greater social support, opportunities to experience success in various settings, and increased self-complexity. However, it is important to consider that the relationship between women's general orientation to balancing their life roles and their overall life satisfaction may be tied to the extent to which adopting some combination of traditional or nontraditional roles is important to them (Barnett & Hyde). For example, women school counselors who assume employee, romantic partner, and parent roles might feel as positively about their ability to balance these roles as do nonworking women who may adopt a combination of more traditional gender roles (e.g., homemaker, romantic partner, and parent). In either of these cases, affirmative feelings about the ability to balance multiple roles would undoubtedly translate into positive mental health outcomes because of these women's perspectives about the importance of these particular role combinations in their own lives.

We also found that higher job satisfaction was predictive of greater overall life satisfaction among women school counselors. This finding may not be particularly surprising in that many previous studies have reported a positive relationship between job or work satisfaction and life satisfaction (e.g., Heller, Judge, & Watson, 2002; Iverson & Maguire, 2000; Sandberg, 2002; Wright, Bennett, & Dun, 1999). Most researchers have postulated that this relationship exists primarily because there is positive spillover between job and general life satisfaction (i.e., job satisfaction spills over into life satisfaction and vice versa) and because some people experience difficulty in separating out their feelings about work from general feelings of life satisfaction (Heller et al.; Jena, 1999; Parris Stephens & Franks, 1995).

In the present study, it is possible that specific job characteristics of school counselors--such as having a strong sense of personal control, experiencing role quality across various professional and personal roles, and having some professional autonomy--may be related to women school counselors' job satisfaction, because such characteristics generally have been shown to be positively related to life satisfaction in other professional women (Tangri, Thomas, Mednick, & Lee, 2003; Yoder, 2003). Thus, having the latitude to negotiate their work environment and being engaged in roles that are perceived to be positive may be beneficial to many women school counselors' general life satisfaction. The interfacing of various roles and positive role spillover may lead many women school counselors to perceive each of their life roles more favorably and, thereby, enhance their overall well being (Reid & Hardy, 1999; Ruderman, Ohlott, Panzer, & King, 2002).

Implications for Counselor Self-Care

Counselor self-care is critical in maintaining the viability of the counseling profession. As early as 1987, the Governing Council of the American Association of Counseling and Development (the forerunner of the American Counseling Association) convened a task force that explored the major issues facing the school counseling profession and attempted to clarify rapidly shifting school counselor roles (Coll & Freeman, 1997). Coll and Freeman stated that the task force found the school counseling profession to be "weak" and "vulnerable" due to the "inability of the profession to maintain a consistent role" (p. 251). In 1990, ASCA first published role statements for elementary, middle, and secondary school counselors, and it continues to develop current iterations of counselor role statements that codify and strengthen school counselors' abilities to define and maintain more consistent job roles

Counselor wellness can be considered along social, emotional, cognitive, physical, spiritual, and vocational domains. Counselors, regardless of gender, profit from cultivating personal and career care plans that systematically and comprehensively address these six life areas and the roles and role conflicts inherent within these areas (O'Halloran & Linton, 2000). For women school counselors in particular, the use of values clarification exercises might be useful in encouraging a greater understanding of how gender role socialization and expectations may relate to their choice of strategies to balance conflicting or competing life roles.

The role conflicts highlighted through values clarification might be resolved through a number of ways. First, quality clinical supervision can prevent severe occupational stress that can lead to erosion of school counseling skills and withdrawal from the profession (Herlihy, Gray, & McCollum, 2002). Furthermore, active involvement in the state and national school counseling associations can provide new skills sets and coping strategies that broaden perspectives about the profession and provide networking opportunities with diverse colleagues.

Commitment to social justice and advocacy through community activism can provide an action-oriented context to women school counselors' life roles. Moreover, women school counselors could seek out professional alliances with individuals outside of the counseling profession. For example, partnerships with school administrators, psychologists, social workers, and teachers could be established through brown-bag lunches or even attending professional association meetings. Alliances with other professionals also might create new dialogues across disciplines and facilitate the development of relationships where competition or misunderstanding may have existed previously. Finally, engaging in informal support gatherings with women who represent diverse ages, races, cultures, and hobbies might assist many women school counselors in learning novel ways to care for self.

Limitations

There are some possible limitations of our study. For example, generalizability of the findings is cautioned because the participants may differ somehow from women school counselors who did not respond to the stud},. In addition, our sample was predominantly White. Although school counselors in the United States are predominantly White and female, it may be important for future researchers to examine similar variables in school counselors who represent a wider range of racial and ethnic backgrounds. In addition, the internal consistency reliability, coefficient of the JSB-R in this study was somewhat lower (i.e., .69) than the more acceptable range of .70 and above. This relatively lower coefficient ma), indicate problems with this scale in terms of consistently measuring the intended construct. It also is possible that some women in our stud}, were cued to the research intent. That is, they may have responded differently to some or all of the study's scales based on their presumed knowledge about what was being assessed or in ways that did not reflect their actual attitudes and beliefs.

Conclusion and Future Research Directions

School counselors are unique members of school settings and have specific roles that allow them to emphasize wellness and optimal development across the K-12 years. Although we found that women school counselors may find that ambiguous professional roles and concomitant role discrepancy in their jobs relate to broader role balance issues across their life roles, professional role ambiguity may be problematic for men school counselors as well. Thus, future investigations should examine the variables of interest in a sample of men school counselors. Because women and men have been reported to operationalize multiple role balance issues differently (Marks, 2001; Moen& Yu, 2000) and because there may be greater permeability in the boundaries between work and home for women versus men (e.g., Yoder, 2003), it seems crucial that future researchers focus on understanding the importance of the meanings that individuals assign to the lift roles they assume.

Furthermore, future investigators should examine the extent to which women and men school counselors seek opportunities to enhance their sense of well-being in the context of assuming various professional and personal roles. Moreover, research is needed that specifically identifies how the act of balancing multiple roles positively affects the lives and overall mental health of women school counselors. In addition, identifying explicit coping strategies used by women school counselors and other professional women to address multiple role commitments and issues would be helpful in better understanding their general life satisfaction and other types of mental health outcomes.

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Rhonda M. Bryant is an associate professor in the Department of Counseling and Educational Leadership at Albany State University, Albany, GA. E-mail: [e-mail].

Madonna G. Constantine is a professor in the Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York.

Table 1. Means, Standard Deviations, and
Intercorrelations of the Study's Variables

Variable                  M          SD         2

1. Age                    39.76      9.42       .88 ***
2. Years of experience    12.41      9.01       --
3. Urban school setting   --         --
4. Suburban school        --         --
   setting
5. Rural school setting   --         --
6. Role Balance Scale     35.85      2.84
7. Job Satisfaction       21.62      2.52
   Blank-Revised
8. Satisfaction with      30.05      4.19
   Life Scale

Variable                    3          4          5

1. Age                    -.30 ***    .27 **     .05
2. Years of experience    -.21 *      .25 **    -.05
3. Urban school setting   --         -.76 ***   -.37 ***
4. Suburban school                   --         -.32 ***
   setting
5. Rural school setting                         --
6. Role Balance Scale
7. Job Satisfaction
   Blank-Revised
8. Satisfaction with
   Life Scale

Variable                    6         7          8

1. Age                    -.04       .17 *      .08
2. Years of experience    -.10       .15        .03
3. Urban school setting   -.07       .00        .00
4. Suburban school         .06       .09        .06
   setting
5. Rural school setting    .01      -.12       -.09
6. Role Balance Scale     --         .20 *      .45 ***
7. Job Satisfaction                 --          .53 ***
   Blank-Revised
8. Satisfaction with                           --
   Life Scale

Note. Higher scores for each of the study's scales
indicate a greater amount of the given variable.

* p < .05.

** p < .01.

*** p < 0.001

Table 2. Summary of the Multiple Regression Analysis
for Variables Predicting Life Satisfaction

Step and Variable                    B     SE B   [beta]      t

Step 1
  Age                                .12    .08      .27    1.45
  Years of experience               -.09    .09     -.21   -1.16
  Location of school environment
    Suburban                         .07    .82      .01     .08
    Rural                          -1.35   1.16     -.11   -1.17
Step 2
  Age                                .05    .07      .10     .70
  Years of experience               -.04    .07     -.09    -.60
  Location of school environment
    Suburban                        -.18    .65     -.02    -.28
    Rural                           -.66    .92     -.05    -.72
  Role balance                       .53    .10      .36    5.04 *
  Job satisfaction                   .75    .12      .45    6.30 *

* p < .001.