African American Ninth Graders' Use of School Counseling Services

• In Event: School, Community, and Family Partnerships in Support of Black Success

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the usage of school counseling services among African American 9th graders and predictors of their usage. Specifically this study will answer the following research questions:

1. What school counseling services do African American 9th graders use?
2. Is there any significant difference between male and female African American 9th graders in their use of school counseling services?
3. What are the significant predictors of African American 9th graders’ use of different school counseling services?

This study uses the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model as the theoretical framework to guide the inquiry. ASCA recommends school counselors spend at least 80 percent of their time in providing direct and indirect services to students (ASCA, 2012). Evidence in the literature supports the positive impact that school counselors’ services have on students’ academic, behavior and social-emotional development (Carey & Dimmit, 2012; Carey, Harrington, Martin, & Stevenson, 2012). However, it is unclear in the literature about the usage of school counseling services among African American students.

This study used the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) public-use data. The participants in this study are 3,756 9th grade African American students in the HSLS: 09 data. Six demographic variables were included in the analysis of this study: gender, SES, race, first language learned to speak, and IEP indicator. HSLS: 09 included two scales of school belongingness and school engagement (both with a coefficient alpha of .65). Nine categorical school counseling services variables were included that related to 9th grader talking to school counselor about math courses, science courses, other courses, going to college, jobs/careers, personal problems, putting together education/career plan, options for after high school and college admission.

Using SPSS 24v we first conducted frequency analysis with all school counseling service variables to answer the first research question. Second, we performed a series of chi-square test of independence to examine the relation between gender and African American students’ use of school counseling services. Lastly, we conducted a series of logistic regression to answer the third research question.

Due to the limited space, we highlighted a few findings below. The full version of results will be shared in the final version of this paper. The most commonly used school counseling service was “talked with school counselor about going to college”, “about math courses” and “about other courses”. The least commonly used service were “counselor helped put together education/career plan” and “talked to school counselor about personal problems”. Female students were more likely to talk with school counselor about math courses, about science courses, and about other courses.

Authors

• Qi Shi, Loyola University Maryland

• Ramon Goings, Loyola University Maryland