Hannah K. Knudsen, PhD, Lori J. Ducharme, PhD, Paul M. Roman, PhD (Institute for Behavioral Research, University of Georgia)

View article (Institutional subscription may be required. Need help getting a copy?)

An intriguing hypothesis is that clinical supervision may protect against counselor turnover. This idea has been mentioned in recent discussions of the substance abuse treatment workforce. To test this hypothesis, the authors extended their previous research on emotional exhaustion and turnover intention among counselors by estimating the associations between clinical supervision and these variables in a large sample (N = 823) of community treatment providers in the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network. An exploratory analysis reveals that clinical supervision was negatively associated with emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. Given previous findings that emotional exhaustion and turnover intention were associated with job autonomy, procedural justice, and distributive justice, the authors estimate a structural equation model to examine whether these variables mediated clinical supervision's associations with emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. These data support the fully mediated model. The authors found that the perceived quality of clinical supervision is strongly associated with counselors' perceptions of job autonomy, procedural justice, and distributive justice, which are, in turn, associated with emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. These data offer support for the protective role of clinical supervision in substance abuse treatment counselors' turnover and occupational well-being. (Article, Peer-Reviewed, PDF, English, 2008)

Keywords: Adoption of interventions | Attitudes of health personnel | Clinical supervision | Community health services | CTN platform/ancillary study | Staff turnover | Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment (journal)

Document No: 271

Submitted by CTN Dissemination Librarians (4/22/2008).