A survey with a sample of 72 Puerto Rican professional college counselors was conducted to learn: (1) if they recognized advocacy competencies specified in the Advocacy Competency Domains document as appropriate to their functions, (2) the frequency with which they performed them, and (3) the relationship among recognition and practice with their professional identity. The survey instrument, reviewed by a panel of counseling experts, consisted of 36 items organized in six domains and three population levels: students, school-community, and public information-social and political advocacy. A sociodemographic questionnaire was developed; six out of the 14 items measured professional identity. A general Alpha Cronbach reliability coefficient of .90 was obtained for the Functions and Frequency variables. Two of the six domains reached higher than .70 reliability coefficients.

All 36 Functions were endorsed as relevant to performance. The Frequency average indicates a moderate practice of the endorsed Functions. There was a moderate correlation between the endorsed Functions and the Frequency ( r=.42, p=0.01). No correlation was found between the professional identity index and the endorsed Functions and Frequency. The advocacy on behalf of a client domain obtained the highest endorsement; the lowest was the social and political advocacy. The client empowerment domain obtained the highest Frequency average. The public information and the social and political advocacy domains obtained the lowest Frequency averages.

Further research is recommended to ascertain: advocacy competencies of professional counselors working in other scenarios, with other populations; professional identity definition as related to the advocacy role, and the relationship between occupational satisfaction and the discrepancies of identifying Functions inherent to college counseling and the performance Frequency.