Journal of Counseling Psychology

An exploratory examination of the associations among racial and ethnic discrimination, racial climate, and trauma-related symptoms in a college student population.
In this study, we examined the association among perceptions of racial and/or ethnic discrimination, racial climate, and trauma-related symptoms among 289 racially diverse college undergraduates. Study measures included the Perceived Stress Scale, the Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire, the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist—Civilian Version, and the Racial Climate Scale. Results of a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) indicated that Asian and Black students reported more frequent experiences of discrimination than did White students. Additionally, the MANOVA indicated that Black students perceived the campus racial climate as being more negative than did White and Asian students. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that when controlling for generic life stress, perceptions of discrimination contributed an additional 10% of variance in trauma-related symptoms for Black students, and racial climate contributed an additional 7% of variance in trauma symptoms for Asian students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Perceived racial/ethnic discrimination, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and health risk behaviors among Mexican American adolescents.
Utilizing the concept of race-based traumatic stress, this study tested whether posttraumatic stress symptoms explain the process by which perceived discrimination is related to health risk behaviors among Mexican American adolescents. One hundred ten participants were recruited from a large health maintenance organization in Northern California. Mediational analyses indicated that adolescents who perceived more discrimination reported worse posttraumatic stress symptoms, controlling for covariates. In turn, adolescents who experienced heightened posttraumatic stress symptoms reported more alcohol use, more other drug use, involvement in more fights, and more sexual partners. Perceived discrimination was also directly related to involvement in more fights. Results provide support for the notion of race-based traumatic stress, specifically, that perceived discrimination may be traumatizing for Mexican American adolescents. Counseling psychologists and counselors in schools and community settings should assess Mexican American adolescents for the effects of discrimination and provide appropriate interventions to reduce its negative emotional impact. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
A multicultural assessment of adolescent connectedness: Testing measurement invariance across gender and ethnicity.
Counselors, psychologists, and evaluators of intervention programs for youth increasingly view the promotion of connectedness as an important intervention outcome. When evaluating these programs, researchers frequently test whether the treatment effects differ across gender and ethnic or racial groups. Doing so necessitates the availability of culturally and gender-invariant measures. We used the Hemingway: Measure of Adolescent Connectedness to estimate the factor structure invariance and equality of means across gender and 3 racial/ethnic groups with a large sample of middle school adolescents. From a practical perspective, the 10-scale model suggested factor structure invariance across gender and racial or ethnic (i.e., African American, Caucasian, and Latina/o) groups of adolescents. However, tests for partial invariance revealed some group difference on the factor loadings and intercepts between gender and ethnic/racial groups. When testing for mean equivalence, girls reported higher connectedness to friends, siblings, school, peers, teachers, and reading but lower connectedness to their neighborhoods. Caucasians reported higher connectedness to their neighborhoods and friends but lower connectedness to siblings than African Americans and Latinos. African Americans reported the highest connectedness to self (present and future) but lowest connectedness to teachers. Latinos reported the lowest connectedness to reading, self-in-the-present, and self-in-the-future. Overall, this study reveals racial/ethnic and gender mean differences on several connectedness subscales and suggests the Hemingway subscales are, from a practical perspective, invariant across gender and ethnicity and therefore appropriate for most assessment and evaluation purposes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Does youth psychotherapy improve academically related outcomes? A meta-analysis.
To better understand the impact of psychotherapy on youth academic performance, the authors located and examined 83 studies of youth psychotherapy that contained 102 treatment comparisons. Results revealed a d = 0.46 overall effect size, with a d = 0.50 effect size for mental health outcomes, and a d = 0.38 effect size for academically related outcomes. Academically related outcomes were further categorized into teacher-rated classroom behavior (d = 0.26), academic achievement (d = 0.36), environmentally related outcomes (d = 0.26), and self-reported academically related outcomes (d = 0.59). Each of these effect sizes differed significantly from zero, and the 4 academically related categories were homogeneous. Participant racial and ethnic diversity and age were explored as moderators. The results point to psychotherapy benefiting student academics, regardless of age. Ethnically diverse participant groups in the studies fared better academically than did nondiverse groups. Implications discussed include counseling psychologists maintaining a holistic view of youth and of working more closely with educators. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Evaluation of counseling outcomes at a university counseling center: The impact of clinically significant change on problem resolution and academic functioning.
The main purpose of this study was to investigate how receiving personal counseling at a university counseling center helps students deal with their personal problems and facilitates academic functioning. To that end, this study used both clinical and academic outcome measures that are relevant to the practice of counseling provided at a counseling center and its unique function in an institution of higher education. In addition, this study used the clinical significance methodology (N. S. Jacobson & P. Truax, 1991) that takes into account clients' differences in making clinically reliable and significant change. Pre-intake and post-termination surveys, including the Outcome Questionnaire (M. J. Lambert, K. Lunnen, V. Umphress, N. Hansen, & G. Burlingame, 1994), were completed by 78 clients, and the responses were analyzed using clinical significance methodology. The results revealed that those who made clinically reliable and significant change (i.e., the recovered group) reported the highest level of improvement in academic commitment to their educational goals and problem resolution, compared with those who did not make clinically significant change. The implications of the findings on practice for counseling at university counseling centers and for administrators in higher education institutions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Differentiation, self–other representations, and rupture–repair processes: Predicting child maltreatment risk.
This set of studies was designed to examine the relational underpinnings of child abuse potential in a sample of 51 urban families. In Study 1, lower maternal differentiation of self—most notably, greater emotional reactivity and greater emotional cutoff—along with self-attacking introjects distinguished mothers at higher risk (vs. lower risk) for child maltreatment. In Study 2, patterns of interactive rupture and repair were examined in a subsample of 15 families and found to vary as a function of risk for child maltreatment. Specifically, Structural Analysis of Social Behavior coding (SASB; Benjamin, 1996, 2003) of mother–children interactions during 2 moderately stressful lab tasks revealed higher rates of interactive mismatch and mother-initiated ruptures and fewer successful repairs in families at higher risk for child maltreatment, relative to families at lower risk. Implications for counseling and directions for further translational research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Together in pain: Attachment-related dyadic processes and posttraumatic stress disorder.
We used actor–partner interdependence modeling to explore associations among attachment-related dyadic processes, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in war veterans, and secondary traumatic stress (STS) in their wives. A sample of 157 Israeli couples (85 former prisoners of war and their wives and a comparison group of 72 veterans not held captive and their wives) completed self-report scales assessing attachment insecurities (anxiety, avoidance) and PTSD symptoms. For both groups of veterans and their wives, attachment anxiety was associated with the severity of their own and their spouses' PTSD and STS. Avoidant attachment was associated with PTSD and STS only in couples that included a former prisoner of war. A complex pattern of associations involving avoidant attachment was observed in the actor–partner analyses of these couples. The study demonstrates that attachment-related dyadic processes play a role in the development and maintenance of PTSD in traumatized veterans and STS in their wives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Development and validation of a Coping with Discrimination Scale: Factor structure, reliability, and validity.
Four studies were conducted to develop and validate the Coping With Discrimination Scale (CDS). In Study 1, an exploratory factor analysis (N = 328) identified 5 factors: Education/Advocacy, Internalization, Drug and Alcohol Use, Resistance, and Detachment, with internal consistency reliability estimates ranging from .72 to .90. In Study 2, a confirmatory factor analysis (N = 328) provided cross-validation of the 5-factor model as well as evidence for validity of the scale. The validity evidence was similar across racial groups and for males and females. In Study 3, the estimated 2-week test–retest reliabilities (N = 53) were between .48 and .85 for the 5 factors. Education/Advocacy, Internalization, Drug and Alcohol Use, and Detachment were positively associated with active coping, self-blame, substance use, and behavioral disengagement, respectively, providing further support for validity of the CDS. Finally, incremental validity evidence was obtained in Study 4 (N = 220), where it was shown that the CDS explained variance in outcome variables (i.e., depression, life satisfaction, self-esteem, and ethnic identity) that could not be explained by general coping strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Introducing a brief measure of cultural and religious identification in American Jewish identity.
The authors conducted 3 studies to develop and investigate the psychometric properties of the American Jewish Identity Scales (AJIS), a brief self-report measure that assesses cultural identification and religious identification. Study 1 assessed the content validity of the item pool using an expert panel. In Study 2, 1,884 Jewish adults completed the initial AJIS and various measures of ethnic identity, collective self-esteem, and religiosity. Using confirmatory factor analyses, the authors selected and cross-validated 33 items that loaded highly and differentially on the 2 theorized latent factors. Study 3 assessed the AJIS's short-term stability and its relation to social desirability. Tests of reliability and construct validity provided initial psychometric support for the measure and confirmed the theorized primary salience of cultural identification. Participants reported significantly more private than public collective self-esteem, and the most Jewish-identified participants reported greater private self-esteem, acculturative stress, and perceived discrimination than did their more assimilated counterparts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Holland in Iceland revisited: An emic approach to evaluating U.S. vocational interest models.
An emic approach was used to test the structural validity and applicability of Holland's (1997) RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional) model in Iceland. Archival data from the development of the Icelandic Interest Inventory (Einarsdóttir & Rounds, 2007) were used in the present investigation. The data included an indigenous pool of occupations and work-task items representing Iceland's world of work that had been administered to a sample of 597 upper secondary school students. Multidimensional scaling analysis and property vector fitting using Prediger's (1981) work-task dimensions were applied to the item responses to test if the RIASEC model could be identified. The results indicated that a 4-dimensional solution better explains the interest space in Iceland than Holland's 2-dimensional RIASEC representation. The work-task dimension of People–Things and the Sex-Type and Prestige dimensions were located in the 1st and 2nd dimensions of the multidimensional scaling solution, but Data–Ideas, a dimension critical to the RIASEC model, was not. The 3rd and 4th dimensions did not correspond to any dimensions previously detected in structural studies in the United States and seem to be related to specific ecological, cultural, and political forces in Iceland. These results demonstrate the importance of selecting representative indigenous occupations and work tasks when evaluating the RIASEC model. The present study is an example of the next step in a comprehensive cross-cultural research program on vocational interests, an emic investigation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Content analysis of the Journal of Counseling Psychology: Buboltz, Miller, and Williams (1999) 11 years later.
A content analysis of research published in the Journal of Counseling Psychology (JCP) was conducted for Volumes 46 (1999) through 56 (2009). The analysis involved the placement of 514 articles in 15 substantive content categories. In addition, we identified the most frequently published authors, most frequent institutional affiliations, and several reported demographic characteristics. The principal areas of research activity in the JCP were multiculturalism and/or diversity, research on development and evaluation of tests and measures, personality and adjustment, outcome research, and interpersonal and/or social support and/or attachment, with these categories accounting for 57% of the articles published. Over 40% of the samples reported were college students, with a large number of samples including both genders and indicating the ethnic breakdown. This content analysis revealed that the JCP has remained consistent with its stated mission while incorporating changes in the field in its publications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)

Journal of Counseling Psychology - Vol 57, Iss 3