Oppression is often mentioned in multicultural literature as a cognate to Racial Identity Development and Multicultural Competence. However, to this point, no studies have empirically examined the oppression construct in terms of relevant characteristics, processes, or relationships to other multicultural constructs. This study presents a conceptual model of oppression and explores psychometric properties of a scale designed to assess oppression attitudes of Master's level counselor-trainees enrolled in CACREP accredited programs. Expert panel review of the original 78-item instrument produced strong content validity evidence for the Oppression Attitudes construct. A pilot study (N = 83) was conducted for which an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) of the Oppression Attitudes Scale resulted in a 3-Factor solution representative of Personal Oppression Attitudes, Program-Related Oppression Attitudes, and Professional Identity-Related Oppression Attitudes of Master's level counselor-trainees. Construct validity evidence was supported during the field study (N = 248) via convergent and discriminant analyses, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Correlations between OAS scores (i.e., higher scores indicate anti-oppressive attitude) and Multicultural Competency scores (r = .59, p < .01) on the Multicultural Counseling Knowledge and Awareness Scale (MCKAS), and between OAS scores and Phase-2 Racial Identity Development Scores (r = .23 to .65, p < .01) on the White Racial Identity Attitudes Scale (WRIAS) provided evidence of convergent validity amongst the theoretically related constructs. Correlations between OAS scores and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale-Form C (r = .14, p < .05), along with correlations between the OAS and Phase 1 White Racial Identity Attitudes (r = -.22 and -.64, p < .01) indicated adequate discriminant validity between the OAS and unrelated constructs. Internal consistency reliability for OAS subscales was examined during the pilot study (α = .91, .88, and .90) and the field study (α = .89, .87, and .80) indicating high subscale item homogeneity. Racial Identity Development scores and Multicultural Competency Scores were found to be predictors of Oppression Attitudes, adding support for the conceptual model. Additionally, beginning counseling students were shown to have significantly lower OAS scores than more experienced students, suggesting benefits to CACREP training.

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Anxiety, depression, and stress are three of the most common experiences that impact college student functioning and academic achievement. At least one in six college students struggle with anxiety, increasing risk for developing depressive symptoms or disorders that further impact wellness. However, as mental health concerns increase across campuses, universities are not equipped to meet the demand of mental health support for college students. Neurofeedback (NF) training presents as an innovative intervention to treat anxiety, depression, and stress as it is designed to regulate brain processes in an effort to increase more effective brain functioning. A quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group design was utilized to determine differences between treatment group and waitlist control group participants' anxiety, stress, and depression scores at four time points as measured by the: (a) Beck Anxiety Inventory [BAI] (Beck, Epstein, Brown, & Steer, 1988); (b) Beck Depression Inventory, Second Edition [BDI-II] (Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996); (c) Perceived Stress Scale [PSS] (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983); and (d) Social Anxiety Thought questionnaire [SAT] (Hartman, 1984). Furthermore, cortisol testing was used through assessment of saliva samples using Salimetrics Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Key findings for the current investigation include: (a) a marginally significant (p = .051) difference between treatment group and control group participants' PSS (partial η2 = .093), BDI-II (partial η2 = .089), and SAT (partial η2 = .052) scores over time; (b) no significance difference among participant demographics between treatment group and control group assessment scores over time; (c) no significance between treatment group and control group assessment scores and salivary cortisol levels over time; and (d) a negative relationship between the control group participants' salivary cortisol levels at pre-test on the BAI, PSS, and SAT. Finally, results are compared to previous studies. Limitations and implications as well as areas for future research are explored.

The admission of students into Counselor Education programs aims to select those applicants with the best potential to successfully complete the graduate program as well as acquire effective clinical skills. The primary method of measuring achievement potential for graduate students in Counselor Education programs represents Graduate Record Examination Scores (GRE); minimal scores on the examination are required for program admission. This study examined the relationship between student achievement of clinical skills and incoming GRE scores. The study participants were 47 master's level Counselor Education students who were enrolled in Practicum in Counselor Education (MHS 6800) in the spring, summer, and fall semesters of 2002 as well as the spring, summer, and fall semesters of 2003. All students were required to submit videotapes of live counseling sessions conducted in the Community Counseling Clinic at the University of Central Florida. The videotapes were rated using the Global Scale for Rating Helper Responses, developed by George Gazda. An independent samples t-test was utilized to assess between group differences for the sample participants. The study results showed no significant differences between the demonstration of clinical skills in Counselor Education students with a GRE score over 1000 and those students with a GRE score below 1000. The study results suggested that other factors outside of those skills measured by the GRE might attribute to successful acquirement and demonstration of clinical counseling skills.

This study investigated the influence of past witnessed or experienced abuse on heterosexual cohabiting couples' Premarital Personal and Relationship Evaluation for Cohabiting Couples (PREPARE-CC) couple relationship types. The researcher utilized preexisting data from 5,000 cohabiting couples who had previously participated in the PREPARE marriage preparation program and had completed the PREPARE-CC inventory including a demographic section that elicited information about past abuse. Discriminant analysis was conducted in SPSS to answer the question of whether the presence of past witnessed or experienced abuse could successfully predict relationship type among cohabiting couples. Results of the discriminant analysis yielded no significant ability to classify cohabiting couples by individuals' experience of past abuse, however, isolating females and males with the highest frequencies of past abuse indicated that males abused "very often" had a higher frequency of higher-satisfaction relationship types than the general sample consisting mostly of individuals with little or no history of abuse. Females reporting abuse "very often" did not follow this same pattern. Recommendations were made for future longitudinal studies and for strength-based research on healthy heterosexual cohabiting couples in an effort to understand what contributes to these couples' success.

Wellness is an integral component of the helping professions (Myers & Sweeney, 2005; Witmer, 1985). Specifically, wellness is included in ethical codes, suggestions for practice, and codes of conduct throughout counseling, psychology, and social work fields (see American Counseling Association Code of Ethics, 2014; American Psychological Association Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, 2010; National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics, 1996). Even so, wellness in helping professionals is a difficult construct to measure. Thus, the purpose of the research investigation was to develop the Helping Professional Wellness Discrepancy Scale (HPWDS) and examine the psychometric features of the HPWDS in a sample of helping professionals and helping professionals-in-training. A correlational research design was employed for this investigation (Gall, Gall, & Borg, 2007). Specifically, the researcher examined: (a) the factor structure of the HPWDS with a sample of helping professionals; (b) the internal consistency reliability of the HPWDS; (c) the relationship between HPWDS scores and Counseling Burnout Inventory (CBI) scores; (d) the relationships between helping professionals' HPWDS scores and their reported demographic data; and (e) the relationship between HPWDS factor scores and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale-X1 (MCSDS-X1). The research questions were examined using: (a) Factor Analysis (FA), (b) Cronbach's alpha, (c) Spearman Rho correlation, (d) Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) and (e) internal replication analysis. A review of the literature is provided, discussing theoretical and empirical support for all the items on the initial model of the HPWDS (n = 92) as well as for all the items included on the final HPWDS exploratory model (n = 22). The researcher investigated helping professionals' perceived levels of wellness, aspirational levels of wellness, and the discrepancy between perceived and aspirational levels of wellness. The data was collected via online, mail out, and face-to-face administration to increase methodological rigor. The sample size for the investigation was 657, with 88 coming from Face-to-Face sampling, 87 from mail out sampling, and 484 from online/email sampling. Data analysis resulted in a five-factor exploratory HPWDS model that accounted for 69.169% of the total variance. Model communalities were considered acceptable with only three communalities below the recommended .5 value. Factor 1 represented Professional & Personal Development Activities and accounted for 32.605% of the variance, Factor 2 represented Religion/Spirituality and accounts for 13.151% of the variance, Factor 3 represented Leisure Activities and accounted for 9.443% of the variance, Factor 4 represented Burnout and accounted for 7.198% of the variance, and Factor 5 represented Helping Professional Optimism and accounted for 6.773% of the variance. In addition to a literature review, the research methodology and research results are provided. Results of the research investigation are discussed and areas for future research, limitations of the study, and implications for the helping professions are presented. Some implications of the findings include: (a) a theoretically and methodologically sound instrument for assessing wellness discrepancies in helping professionals is important; (b) helping professionals should be aware of both the personal and professional activities they are engaging in to increase their knowledge and self-efficacy, as well as their leisure activity engagement; (c) it is advantageous for researchers to use the scale development procedures, rigorous sampling methodologies, and FA guidelines outlined throughout Chapters 3 and 4 when developing new assessments for evaluating helping professionals; and (d) a five factor wellness assessment allowing helping professionals to evaluate themselves in Professional & Personal Development Activities, Religion/Spirituality, Helping Professional Optimism, Leisure Activities, and Burnout arenas is integral in assessing wellness discrepancies in helping professionals.

Research suggests that counselor educators continue to debate whether general personality characteristics, relationship building skills, or other knowledge or skills are important in selecting the most effective counselors (Crews et al., 2005). Further, counselor educators continue to rely on measures that have limited ability to predict counseling competence or success in graduate programs. Such measures include GRE and GPA scores along with heavy reliance on the personal interview that is well-known for bias. Moreover, research supports that there is a need for assessments that will assist in determining the most effective counselors and emphasize the importance of measuring those characteristics that have a solid empirical link to client outcomes. The purpose of this study was to bridge the gap in the literature and to measure counselor characteristics that have are grounded in current outcome literature. Outcome research has suggested that counselor empathy is one of the strongest predictors of client outcome. Therefore, two constructs were explored in this study that are linked to empathy: Loevinger‘s (1976) Theory of Ego Development and Altruistic Caring as measured by the Heintzelman Inventory (Robinson, Kuch, & Swank, 2010). The sample consisted of 81 graduate-level counselor trainees in their first or second semester of practicum at a large South Eastern university. Results revealed no statistically significant relationship between variables. However, further exploratory analysis yielded a statistically significant relationship between a component of altruistic caring, specifically early career choice in the counseling field (4.1% of the variance explained), and client outcome. Implications for counselor educators are presented along with areas for future research.

The current study utilized data from a federally-funded healthy marriage grant to examine pre, post, and three-to-six month follow-up changes in relationship satisfaction (as measured by the Dyadic Adjustment Scale total scores) and individual distress (as measured by the Outcomes Questionnaire 45.2). Additionally, the study evaluated income and dosage as predictors of relationship satisfaction and individual distress change at post-assessment and three-to-six month follow-up. Participants included 220 married individuals with children who completed PREP 7.0 (Prevention Relationship Enhancement Program). A repeated measures, split plot, MANOVA indicated statistically significant improvements in relationship satisfaction and individual distress for participants at post-assessment and three-to-six month follow-up. No significant differences existed in relationship satisfaction and individual distress changes between men and women. Hierarchical multiple regression indicated combined monthly income and dosage (as measured by number of lessons attended) did not predict changes in relationship satisfaction and individual distress at post-assessment and three-to-six month follow-up. However, partner scores accounted for the largest percent of variance in relationship satisfaction change. Discussion of results, implications for research and practice, and study limitations are provided.

The counseling relationship has long been considered an essential part of the foundation of positive client outcomes in counseling. While many factors play a role in the therapeutic relationship, the facilitative conditions of empathy, unconditional positive regard, and genuineness have been the most-researched components of the Person-Centered construct of the therapeutic relationship. The supervisory relationship parallels the therapeutic relationship in many ways, and as the therapeutic relationship is critical to counseling, the supervisory relationship is foundational to effective supervision. While the facilitative conditions are empirically proven to contribute to positive client outcomes within the therapeutic relationship, the role of the counselor’s supervisory relationship has been largely unexplored in its association to client outcomes. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between the facilitative conditions perceived by the client during counseling, and the facilitative conditions perceived by the counselor-in-training during supervision. Additionally, these variables were tested for their ability to predict client outcomes. The sample of this study consisted of 88 clients and 55 counselors-in-training at a large university in the southeastern United States. Both clients and counselors-in-training completed two instruments to ascertain the quality of their counseling and supervision relationships. The Outcomes Questionnaire-45 was utilized to collect client outcomes data. Results validate a correlation between the client’s perception of the therapeutic relationship and client outcomes, however there appears to be no relationship between the supervisory relationship and client outcomes. Further results of the study and limitations were discussed