Indicators of Client Satisfaction in Academic, Career, and Personal Counseling in Higher Education

There will be an increasingly older cast to American society during the next twenty to thirty years. Middle-aged and older Americans will face numerous changes in the workplace, including technological change, a global economy, lack of promotional opportunities, and layoffs. As a result of these changes, many adult workers will chose to enter or re-enter college programs to upgrade their employment skills. Personnel within institutions of higher education, including those in the counseling office, may not be fully prepared to serve these older students who will need assistance with their transition to college. Without such aid, these students might drop out of higher education, exacerbating the retention problem faced by many colleges. The retention literature indicates that the identification of and commitment to career goals as well as the development of relationships with the institution are two important contributors to the retention of college students. Additionally, the literature on the adult student has focused on the need for supportive counseling 1) to help adult students establish and navigate their personal relationship to the institution, and 2) assist them to resolve conflicts that may accompany their transition to college. If they are to help adults persist in their college programs, counselors need to know how to best address the problems and issues these older learners face. Counselors need to know the outcome of their counseling sessions with adults, so they can ascertain the best methods and processes to utilize; a common method used to assess outcome is client satisfaction, a form of self-report. This study explored three research questions: Among students who use counseling services, 1) To what extent can a combination of environmental (i.e., social climate), demographic (i.e., age, individual differences), and process (i.e., number of sessions) variables predict client satisfaction; 2) To what extent does client satisfaction differ between men and women; 3) To what extent can reason for attending counseling sessions (i.e., personal, vocational, educational) predict client satisfaction. Analyses were conducted using hierarchical multiple regression (Question 1), ANOVA (Question 2), and standard multiple regression (Question 3). The research sample consisted of 199 students at a comprehensive state university who attended at least one session of counseling. The results indicated that the relationship (cohesion) between a counselor and client is the most significant factor in a student's satisfaction with counseling, whether the student is an adult student or one of traditional age. For this reason, institutions of higher education should strive to develop a sense of cohesion, in the form of close relationships, with its students. Programmatic strategies, including those for adult students, are discussed.