Career counseling in professional practice: a journal review

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Wyndolyn M.A. Ludwikowski, David Vogel, and Patrick Ian Armstrong (2009). "Attitudes Toward Career Counseling: The Role of Public and Self-Stigma." Journal of Counseling Psychology. Vol. 56, No. 3. Pp 408-416.

This article discusses a specific study conducted in 2008 involving 509 college students who were systematically surveyed regarding their attitudes toward career counseling. Many different attitudes and patterns of behavior surfaced, but the most consistent attitudes exhibited surrounded the fact that a stigma exists within the college student world relative to career counseling services offered at their own school. This finding is supported by some very specific results that helped to explain the general disconnect between college students who often struggle to find jobs during and especially after college and the apparent wide availability of career counseling services offered to them. Involved in the study is the central idea that a social or cultural stigma exists for college students relative to seeking help with career choices and resources.

Rationale

The study's rationale focused on the idea that most college students never fully utilize the resources at their disposal relative to career counseling.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to help establish the fact that there exists a severe disconnect between the career counseling services and the number of students who utilize these services on a daily basis.

Method, Participants, Procedures, Data Collection and Analysis

The method of the study was a blind survey composed of 40 questions relating to specific attitudes toward career counseling. The participants were 509 college students, of whom all were given the same 40 questions and had an unlimited amount of time to complete them. Study administrators completed the data collection and data analysis and the results were entered into a computer software program that tracks patterns in the attitudes relative to specifically chosen algorithms and values given to certain answers to the survey questions.

Results

The study found a direct link between a perceived or actual stigma in student attitudes and the use or lack thereof of the career counseling services at their own school. The study model was reinforced by the fact that over 60% of the variance in self-stigma and 42% of the variance in attitudes within the study group was accounted for within the study's parameters. The results show a clear disconnect between the career counseling services offered and the use of these services by the average college student. This implies that career counseling, at the college level, needs to be either repackaged or revamped to the extent that the stigmas that exist surrounding the use of said services are eliminated or reduced. Career counselors need to be sensitive to these attitudes and come up with relevant, creative ways of breaking down the barriers to use within colleges.

Discussion and Professional Implications