Elementary school counselors and confidentiality : a naturalistic study

This study examined the responses of five elementary school counselors regarding confidentiality dilemmas. Naturalistic inquiry was utilized to elicit prolonged discussion about the probable actions of the informants to six hypothetical situations, their reported decisions and behaviors related to actual experiences involving confidentiality, answers to general, open-ended questions concerning confidentiality, and personal and professional background material and information about their school setting.

Interview guides were utilized to loosely structure the audio-taped interviews, which yielded between 42 and 53 pages per case of transcribed material. Respondents were liberally quoted in the case summaries, which were analyzed across cases and situations to identify themes, patterns, and issues related to the area of inquiry.

Practical strategies were gleaned from the interview data and problem areas were identified. Since professional codes are constantly evolving and elementary school counseling is in the embryonic stage, professional associations and counselor education programs need to address the unresolved issues inherent in counselor confidentiality with minor clients by developing decision-making models, position statements, and updating and clarifying the codes to which these professionals subscribe.

Note: Abstract extracted from PDF file via OCR.