Building Capacity for Online Counselling in Schools

Overview

Project status: In progress

Grantor

Australian Research Council Linkage Project Scheme

Amount

$108,958

Research leader

• Professor Marilyn Campbell

Research team

QUT

• Professor Ian Shochet

External collaborators

• Dr Mary McMahon (School of Education), The University of Queensland
• Professor Debra Rickwood (Faculty of Health), University of Canberra

Organisational unit

Lead unit Office of Education Research Other units

• Faculty of Education
• Faculty of Health
• School of Learning and Professional Studies
• School of Psychology and Counselling

Start date

1st January 2011

End date

31st December 2013

Research area

Inclusive and Global Education

Keywords

online school counselling, help seeking behaviour, career guidance, educational counselling, adolescent wellbeing

Contact

For more information please contact the Project Officer, Mrs Robyn Garland.

Details

Approach and Methodology

This project will investigate online school counselling by using a three stage, multi-method approach in which complementary qualitative and quantitative data are used to illuminate different perspectives on the problem. The proposed research program is sequential: the three-year project will have three key stages, each of one year duration.

Stage 1 - Year 1

Aim

To explore the levels of readiness of school counsellors, principals, and young people to engage in the use of online school counselling. Stage 1 of the study has 5 phases:

• 1.1 Focus groups with secondary school counsellors in Queensland (QLD)
• 1.2 Survey of all secondary school counsellors in Australia
• 1.3 Survey of all secondary school principals in Australia
• 1.4 Focus groups with secondary school students from 6 schools in QLD
• 1.5 Survey of Year 8-12 students in 6 secondary schools in QLD

1.1 (Stage 1, Phase 1)

Six structured focus groups with secondary school counsellors from QLD. Focus groups will comprise approximately 8-10 counsellors each, with equal male and female counsellors and a range of ages represented. Each group will be led by an experienced facilitator using a semi-structured interview to ascertain the opportunities and barriers they perceive in providing school-based online counselling. These interviews will be designed to probe participants' personal skills - both technical and counselling, the provision of systemic technical support, ethical considerations, and their beliefs about the benefits, disadvantages and importance of online counselling. The information from this phase will inform the construction of the survey in the next phase.

1.2 (Stage 1, Phase 2)

Counsellor survey. An online counsellor survey will be developed based on the information obtained from the focus groups. With the assistance of our Partner Organisation of the Queensland Guidance and Counselling Association (QGCA), and the Australian Guidance and Counselling Association (AGCA) the survey will be available online to all AGCA members enabling counsellors across Australia, including those from rural and remote locations, to participate. The survey items will probe responses to the barriers and facilitators raised in the focus groups, such as technical skills, ethical considerations and technical support. The data will be analysed to determine the key barriers and facilitators as reported by the counsellors sampled.

1.3 (Stage 1, Phase 3)

Principals' survey. An online survey for secondary school principals will be developed from the information obtained from the focus groups of counsellors. Specifically, the survey items will probe principals' attitudes to the expansion of school counselling services to include online counselling as well as their perceptions of barriers and opportunities to its provision. Principals' associations will be approached to inform members of the study and invite them to participate. Descriptive statistics will be used to reveal the principals' perceived barriers and facilitators to implementing online counselling. The principals' endorsements of these factors will be compared with those reported in the survey of counsellors to determine whether the views of principals and counsellors are significantly different and strategies will be proposed that may foster greater endorsement of online counselling by principals and school counsellors.

1.4 (Stage 1, Phase 4)

Focus groups with secondary school students from Years 8-12 in 6 QLD schools. Students will be randomly selected. Each group will be led by an experienced facilitator using a semi-structured interview protocol to ascertain the benefits and barriers of an online school counselling program. Informed by the work of Sears (2004) and Rickwood et al. (2007), the focus group questions will probe issues related to help-seeking such as who the students usually seek help from, who they approach in the school context, perceptions of school counsellors, and the barriers and facilitators related specifically to accessing the school counsellor online. The data will be analysed for emerging themes using NVivo as in Phase 1, and this information will be used to inform the content of the student survey.

1.5 (Stage 1, Phase 5)

Student survey. All students from Years 8-12 in 6 QLD schools will be invited to participate. The survey will use measures adapted from those used previously in help-seeking research regarding sources of help and barriers to help-seeking (Rickwood et al., 2005), including the General Help-Seeking Questionnaire, which is internationally used in the youth help-seeking field and has demonstrated appropriate psychometric properties (Wilson et al., 2005). The survey will probe issues about help-seeking behaviour specifically in the school context, such as under what circumstances students seek help and the barriers and facilitators to accessing online counselling.

Outcomes of Stage 1

Outcomes of Stage 1 will be a unique set of data from school counsellors, principals and; students that will lead to detailed understanding about opportunities and obstacles for implementation of school-based online counselling, as well as the factors associated more generally with adolescent help-seeking intentions and behaviour. This knowledge will be used to develop a training program for online counselling in school contexts (Stage 2).

Stage 2 - Year 2

Aim

To design, implement and evaluate an online counselling training program for school counsellors in Queensland. Stage 2 of the study has 2 phases:

• 2.1 Training program design
• 2.2 Training program implementation and evaluation

2.1 (Stage 2, Phase 1)

Program design. Glasheen and Campbell's (2007) pilot online counselling program will be modified based on the findings of Stage 1. It will be tailored to meet the unique needs of school counsellors.

2.2 (Stage 2, Phase 2)

Program implementation and evaluation. Before training pre-measures of skills, knowledge, perceived competence, process and technical issues will be given to 14 volunteer QLD secondary school counsellors from Education Queensland (EQ) schools and 14 QLD control school counsellors recruited through Partner Organisation QGCA and supported technically by Partner Organisation the Learning Place (EQ). (Only EQ schools have access to Learning Place). There have been several schools in EQ who have expressed interest in participating, especially since CI Campbell presented workshops on online counselling. The training package will be delivered online because it offers effective, inclusive, and time and cost efficient learning (McMahon, 2005). Participants will be supported by a supervisor (as in psychological supervision) as this has previously been found to be effective in providing online training to counsellors (McMahon, 2005). This will encourage the counsellors to participate and minimise drop outs. After training post-measures will be administered to establish training effects on skills, knowledge, perceived competence, process and technical issues. The 28 counsellors in the experimental and control schools will be asked to keep a six-month data bank of face-to-face counselling cases on MCData base, a computer based program that is currently used by school counsellors, to collect data on variables such as the number of counselling clients, age, gender, nature of problem, number of sessions, length of sessions and outcome categories of resolved, referred or unresolved. This data will be used as a baseline for implementation of the program in Stage 3.

Outcomes of Stage 2

Outcomes of Stage 2 will be the design, implementation and evaluation a new online school counselling training program, incorporating supervision, to support effective uptake by counsellors involved in 3.

Stage 3 - Year 3

Aim

To implement and evaluate the online counselling program with students. Stage 3 of the study has 3 phases:

• 3.1 Pre-testing of help seeking intention administered to students in the 14 intervention and 14 control schools
• 3.2 Online student counselling implementation
• 3.3 Post-testing of help seeking intention administered to students in the 14 intervention and 14 control schools

3.1 (Stage 3, Phase 1)

Pretesting. A pre-measure adapted from Rickwood et al.'s (2005) help-seeking measures (with items included from Stage 1 Phase 5), as well as measures of awareness and attitudes to online counselling, will be administered to a random sample of secondary school students from 14 intervention schools and 14 control schools matched for socioeconomic status and size (from Education Queensland schools). A large random sample of approximately 4,200 will be attained by sampling 30 students (half male) from each year level in each school. Students will complete the survey during class time, after school and parental permissions have been obtained

3.2 (Stage 3, Phase 2)

Online student counselling implementation. 14 trained school counsellors from Stage 2, who agree to implement online counselling for 6 months will market and implement the online counselling program in their respective schools. Dissemination of information about the new initiative will occur through the school newsletters, provision of a bookmark to each student, and promotion on the school's networked screensaver. The procedures will be the same as trialled in the pilot program (Glasheen & Campbell, see p.1 of this application). By using software available through a systemic learning platform provided by our Partner Organisation the Learning Place, a secure chat room will be established on each school's website. Students will request a counselling appointment using an email link on the website prompting an automatic 'duty of care' response including automatic generation of key telephone numbers and other directions for students experiencing an immediate crisis or threat to their safety. Once the counsellor confirms an appointment time, a unique logon and password will be forwarded to the student as an email attachment. The student can then enter the site and 'chat' with the school counsellor at the appointed time in either a 'text-based' or 'speech-bubble' (avatars and comic-chat) genre. The 14 counsellors will be asked to keep a six-month data bank of face-to-face counselling cases on MCData base (which is already in use with school counsellors) such as the number of counselling clients, age, gender, nature of problem, number of sessions, length of sessions and outcomes of resolved, referred or unresolved per their previous experience with this existing program. This data will be compared to the baseline data collected in Stage 2. Importantly, the number of students who start online counselling and proceed to face-to-face counselling and the number of students who start face-to-face counselling and then transfer to online counselling will be recorded. It is anticipated because of the self selection of students to use counselling and the random assignment of schools to the intervention and control groups that all groups of students including Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students will be represented. An audit of marketing strategies will be undertaken in each school by interviewing each counsellor. After implementation three focus groups will be conducted with the counsellors to probe the opportunities for and obstacles to online counselling.

3.3 (Stage 3, Phase 3)

Post-testing. Post-test measures will be administered to the same sample of secondary school students as in Stage 3 Phase 1, using a coding technique to protect identities. Pre- and post-measures will be compared to determine changes in help-seeking intentions, awareness and attitudes toward online counselling, and comparative analyses will be conducted to determine if changes are related to the intervention. The data also will be analysed using path analysis models to determine factors predicting successful change in intentions. School-level clustering effects will be taken into account using multi-level modelling over the 28 schools. Furthermore, students who used the online counselling service in the intervention schools will be approached at the end of their online counselling sessions to participate in a follow-up survey of their experience of the counselling innovation. This survey will include measures of consumer acceptance, engagement, likeability and ease of use, which will be used to provide descriptive information about the factors related to successful uptake.

Outcomes of Stage 3

Outcomes for Stage 3 will be an evaluation of the acceptance by students and counsellors and the difference in help-seeking intention between schools offering online counselling and those not doing so. This will lead to advances in the understanding of the online counselling process and its place in encouraging early help-seeking. It will also aid in the development of guidelines for Australian schools regarding the implementation and practice of online counselling, including guidelines for online school counsellor training and supervision.

Table 1 - Timeline for the project

Partnerships

• Queensland Guidance and Counselling Association

•  Learning Place