Book Description
Research self-efficacy refers to a person's confidence in their ability to perform research activities (Bailey, 1999; Bard et al., 2000; Deemer, 2010; Holden et al., 1999; Kahn, 2001; Mulliken et al., 2007; Phillips et al., 2004; Unrau & Beck, 2004, Unrau & Grinnel, 2005). Little has been written on this topic in relation to Counselor Education and Supervision (CES) doctoral students. The purpose of this small scale exploratory study was to gather data on variables that may be related to doctoral CES students' perceived research self-efficacy and learn about the factors predictive of the students' research self-efficacy. A cross-sectional survey research design was used to investigate this construct among Counselor Education and Supervision doctoral students in programs approved by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Programs (CACREP). A non-probability, non-randomized, convenience sample (n=60) was obtained from the North Central, Southern, and Northwestern regions of the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES). The Clinical Research Appraisal Inventory was used to measure research self-efficacy and a demographic questionnaire was used to gather demographic information about the participants. The findings from this study indicate the majority of CES doctoral students do not feel confident in their research skills. The results also indicate that as the number of research training credit hours completed increases so does the research self-efficacy of CES doctoral students. The age, gender, career aspirations, and enrollment status of the participants did not predict their research self-efficacy.