Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between dual role behaviors and therapeutic stress, tolerance for ambiguity, personal boundary preference, and gender of counselor and client. A nationwide, random sample of counselors who were members of the American Counseling Association were anonymously surveyed. Five instruments were utilized: Ethics Survey, Therapeutic Stresses Rating Survey, AT-20, Personal Boundary Questionnaire, and Demographics Information Questionnaire. A factor analysis was performed on the Ethics Survey which yielded a four-factor solution which was different from the three-factor solution found by Borys . ;A canonical correlation was conducted to investigate the relationship of the criterion and predictor variable sets. The results indicated that female counselors who report having low boundary preference and high tolerance for ambiguity tend to endorse less dual professional roles as being ethical and more social involvements as being ethical. In addition, female practitioners who tend to report stress from professional doubt and stress in maintaining therapeutic relationships in their practice endorse less dual relationship behaviors overall. In particular, they tend to strongly consider intimate involvements and professional objectivity involvements to be less ethical. Conversely, those who endorse less social involvements with clients and more dual professional roles, are more likely to be male counselors who score lower on tolerance of ambiguity and higher on boundary preference. ;Total redundancy indicated that only 5.6 percent of the total variance in the dependent variable set could be predicted by the first two canonical functions. The major implication of this research is the finding that there seems to be some other variable or variables that contribute the endorsement of dual role behaviors than the ones which have previously been investigated. A second implication is that there were significant gender differences between the endorsements for male and female counselors. Third, the Ethics Survey appears reliable and useful as an instrument to investigate dual role behaviors. The results of four multiple regressions, which generally supported the results of the canonical correlation analysis, are reported. Also, conclusions based on the findings and recommendations for further research are discussed.