Examining the relationship between psychological counselors; self-efficacy and job satisfaction and the mediating role of self-compassion in this relationship

The main purpose of the study is to examine the self-efficacy and job satisfaction of school counselors in terms of socio-demographic characteristics and to investigate the mediating role of self-compassion in the relationship between self-efficacy and job satisfaction. This descriptive and relationship-seeking study will be conducted with psychological counselors working in private and public kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools, secondary education and guidance research centers living in Istanbul. The research consists of a total of 257 psychological counselors, 193 female and 64 male, whose participants can be accessed through a web-based application on a voluntary basis. Personal Information Form, Job Satisfaction Scale, Self Compassion Scale and Psychological Counselor Self-Efficacy Scale were used to collect research data. In the analysis of the collected data, descriptive statistics, t-test, analysis of variance, correlation coefficients, regression analysis, multiple mediation analysis and bootstraping method were used. It has been concluded that there is a significant difference in job satisfaction of psychological counselors according to gender, average monthly income, graduated department, type and level of institution, and the desire to change profession. In addition, it was seen that there was a significant difference in the self-efficacy scores of the psychological counselors according to the type of institution, professional seniority and the desire to change profession. While the effect of self-efficacy on job satisfaction was positive and significant, the effect of self-efficacy on self-compassion was not significant. In the meantime, the effect of self-compassion on job satisfaction was found to be positive or significant. Therefore, the mediating role of self-compassion in the relationship between psychological counselors' self-efficacy and job satisfaction could not be determined. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that self-compassion does not have a mediating role in the relationship between psychological counselors' self-efficacy and job satisfaction, but that self-compassion, self-compassion and self-judgment sub-dimensions have a mediating role. It has been observed that as the self-compassion of the counselors increases, their self-efficacy increases and this situation affects the job satisfaction of the counselors positively. It may be recommended to conduct studies on self-efficacy and self-compassion in order to increase the job satisfaction of psychological counselors.