Students’ Ethical Decision-Making When Considering Boundary Crossings with Counselor Educators

Counselor education students ( N = 224) rated 16 boundary-crossing scenarios involving counselor educators. They viewed boundary crossings as unethical and were aware of power differentials between the 2 groups. Next, they rated the scenarios again, after reviewing 1 of 4 ethical informational resources: relevant standards in the ACA Code of Ethics (American Counseling Association, 2014), 2 different boundary-crossing decision-making models, and a placebo. Although participants rated all resources except the placebo as moderately helpful, these resources had little to no influence on their ethical decision-making. Only 47% of students in the 2 ethical decision-making model groups reported they would use the model they were exposed to in the future when contemplating boundary crossings.