ABSTRACT

Several studies suggest that college counselors believe anxiety has been rising in recent decades. However, these surveys do not allow counselors to give nuanced answers or explicate their reasons, leaving it unclear why counselors estimate such change and how they explain its etiology. Do counselors have more nuanced beliefs than surveys suggest? And to what causes do they attribute such cohort-level change? The current study aims to answer these questions through semi-structured interviews with long-tenured counselors, many of whom are also counseling-center directors. They answered open-ended questions about trends and etiology, and structured questions about five putative causes of cohort change. Counselors agreed that anxiety was higher in recent cohorts, but their answers were qualified, and they reflexively commented on personal biases and selection effects, suggesting their beliefs are more complex than quantitative surveys imply. Most counselors agreed that social change, helicopter parenting, competitiveness, and thwarted distinctiveness were causes.

摘要

几项研究表明，大学辅导员认为近几十年来焦虑症一直在上升。然而，这些调查不允许辅导员给出细致入微的答案或解释他们的原因，因此不清楚为什么辅导员会估计这种变化以及他们如何解释其病因。咨询师的信念是否比调查显示的更微妙？他们将这种队列级别的变化归因于什么原因？目前的研究旨在通过对长期咨询师的半结构化访谈来回答这些问题，其中许多人也是咨询中心的主任。他们回答了关于趋势和病因的开放式问题，以及关于队列变化的五个推定原因的结构化问题。辅导员一致认为，最近的队列中焦虑程度更高，但他们的回答是合格的，他们反射性地评论了个人偏见和选择效应，表明他们的信念比定量调查所暗示的更复杂。大多数辅导员同意社会变革、直升机式养育、竞争和受挫的独特性是原因。