REVIEW OF POLICIES REGARDING SUBSTANCE USE DISORDERS IN STATE/FEDERAL VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION: COUNSELOR ATTITUDE, SELF-EFFICACY, AND FREQUENCY OF PROCEDURAL PRACTICES
Open Access
- Author:
- Xiao, Yi
- Graduate Program:
- Counselor Education
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 05, 2017
- Committee Members:
- Deirdre Elizabeth Mary O'Sullivan, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Deirdre Elizabeth Mary O'Sullivan, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Allison R Fleming, Committee Member
Rayne Audrey Sperling, Committee Member
Gary Zajac, Outside Member - Keywords:
- substance use disorders
vocational rehabilitation
policy
counselor attitude
self-efficacy
frequency of procedural practices
rubric - Abstract:
- There is a high prevalence rate of substance use disorders in the State/Federal Vocational Rehabilitation (VR), but VR clients with substance use disorders are under-served. There are also considerable discrepancies in existing VR policies and procedures related to substance use disorders. In addition, there lacks research investigating the degree of differences of policies across 50 states and connecting substance use disorders policies and practices. Therefore, a two-phase study was employed to investigate research questions. In Phase I, the researcher conducted a systematic review of State/Federal VR policies and procedures related to substance use disorders. To systematically evaluate policies and procedures, the researcher first developed the VR Substance Use Disorders Policy Scoring Rubric. Results of this study demonstrated that the VR Substance Use Disorders Policy Scoring Rubric had sufficient psychometric properties. There were significant insufficiency and inconsistency in policies and procedures related to substance use disorders in the VR. A strong need was signaled for State/Federal VR policy-makers to evaluate their current policies regarding substance use disorders and consider developing a universal baseline service guideline that addresses each of the rubric indicators. The rubric was a viable, preliminary tool for research and policy evaluation. Future research should address rubric validation using feedback from VR counselors. In Phase II, the researcher conducted a counselor survey to explore relationships among policy comprehensiveness, counselor attitude, addiction counseling self-efficacy, frequency of procedural practices, years of experience, and caseload size. The sample included 215 VR counselors recruited from the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification (CRCC) mailing list. These participants came from 44 states. Most of them were White (68.3%), female (81.4%), and had a general caseload (71.2%). Participants’ age ranged from 22 to 73, and their caseload size ranged from 5 to 450. Results demonstrated that VR counselors had a positive attitude and high addiction counseling self-efficacy. VR counselors only sometimes provide procedural practices related to substance use disorders. There was a significant, positive correlation between counselor attitude and addiction counseling self-efficacy. There was a significant, positive correlation between addiction counseling self-efficacy and frequency of procedural practices related to substance use disorders. There were no statistically significant relationships between policy comprehensiveness and variables of interest (i.e. counselor attitude, addiction counseling self-efficacy, and frequency of procedural practice). VR counselors should provide more procedural practices related to substance use disorders. Future research should also address psychometric validation of the addiction counseling self-efficacy scale, and policy implementation in the VR.