Exploring impact and quality in counseling research: A scoping review

• Reviewing counseling literature shows a tendency to mimic effect studies. • Though using validated measurement tools understandings of effect are incomparable. • High amount of context-free knowledge produced, yet difficult to apply in practice. • Little research examining and discussing quality, and what quality entails. Social work research and practice has a profound interest in the question of “what works”, which is often addressed by the evidence paradigm with its focus on measuring the effects of social interventions and driven by increasing demands to demonstrate impact and effectiveness. However, measuring effects, both short or long-term, can be difficult when dealing with “wicked problems”, and controlled trials are rarely ethically or methodologically feasible. This dilemma is evident in counseling research and practice. This review examines how research on counseling for children and young people conceptualizes and measures impact and quality. The review includes 26 papers, and its findings show a tendency to mimic experimental trials to prove the effect of counseling, despite challenges in conducting such trials. The influence of the evidence paradigm is evident in both language use, with common terms like “effect”, and research designs, where various validated measurement tools and “before and after” designs are employed without actual baseline measurements. Overall, the research primarily examines counseling effectiveness on a limited set of parameters, overlooking crucial contextual factors. Consequently, the mechanisms underlying counseling interventions—how they work, for whom, and under what circumstances—remain largely unexplored. Research on service quality is scarce, and few papers offer practical implications for counselors. By not offering a profound discussion on what constitutes impact and quality or how to ensure it, counseling research fails to support practice. This review extends the discussion on the role and value of effect studies and evidence-based practice ideals in social work research.