Assessing efficacy and importance of career counseling competencies

The authors examined self-efficacy and perceived importance of several care er counseling competencies among counselors in school settings (N = 567). T he social cognitive career theory was used as a conceptual framework. Parti cipants completed a modified version of the Career Counseling Self-Efficacy Scale (CCSES) that also included an importance rating. A principal compone nts analysis was used to examine the factorial structure of the modified CC SES and to determine the generalizabilty of the original CCSES findings to practicing school counselors. In addition, counselors' importance ratings w ere compared to those of a panel of counselor educators and career guidance consultants.